Task Force 141 - Its Beginning and Further On
by XzShadoWzX
Summary: The Task Force has been started by General Shepherd, and you are introduced to some of its key members, including Soap, Ghost, Roach and more :) This story will be about the various characters joining, and their random moments throughout their time in the Task Force. This is my first FanFic so remember to review :D
1. Chapter 1: Meeting an asshole

"_What on earth did I agree on?" _John MacTavish thought to himself. He looked around in his bedroom and started regretting his decision. Not too long ago, General Shepherd had asked him to lead Task Force 141, which was a new Task Force he had got permission to start. He had gone on and on about how only the best of the best would be able to become a part of it. And after a very long and somewhat boring conversation, Shepherd had asked him to lead the team. Of course he said yes, you don't just say no to an opportunity like that. It's not like he felt like he didn't deserve it. He had worked hard the last couple of years to get to where he was now, also considering him having to fully recover from the meeting with Imran Zakhaev. That had taken far too long in his opinion. But now when he had finally got to where he wanted to be, he started having second thoughts.

He decided to get up and enjoy what little time he had left, before he had to go to the TF-141 base. Shepherd had told him he would meet his Lieutenant, in the communications room.

John looked at the clock, and realized he would have about an hour and a half before he would get picked up by the driver. He decided to take a shower and make sure everything was ready. He had always been kind of OCD, when it came to him having to go on duty again. The same routines, the same things, and of course double-checking he had everything. Okay… double-checking might be underestimating it; he had to check at least five times to make sure everything was okay. His family had of course never been happy about him joining the military, but with time they had come to accept it. His mother hadn't been very happy last night about him leaving again, his father hadn't really said anything. The worst however was his little brother Scott. He had just wished him well and practically ignored him the rest of the evening. _"At least I'm not bloody married" _John thought. Eventhough he was 29 he didn't feel ready to settle down. Hell, he couldn't even remember when he had last been in a long term relationship. It was probably for the better though.

They had been driving for a while now. In the beginning, all he could see was busy people in the streets, but after a while the scenery had changed to fields. He didn't know exactly how long they had been driving, because he fell asleep on the way, but he had a feeling that they might be there soon. However it wouldn't hurt if he closed his eyes just a few more minutes… just a few more minutes…

He felt the car stop and he quickly opened his eyes. He looked out through the car window and saw what he assumed was the base. He stepped out, grabbed his bags and walked towards General Shepherd, who was standing in front of the entrance.

"Good to see you MacTavish. Welcome to the 141 base, you'll get plenty of time to get to know the area, but right now you have to meet your lieutenant."

"He's already here sir?"

"Yes… he likes being early. He will probably want to show you around since he seems to already know where everything is. I expect you two will be able to pick out the first recruits for the team together. I'll send you two the files of whoever I find suitable."

MacTavish nodded and followed the general inside. It didn't look too bad. They stopped in front of a door which Shepherd opened. The room was lit up but had certain areas which were dark. John could see someone standing in one of the dark areas. _"Well he's not creepy at all"_ John thought to himself.

"John MacTavish, meet Simon "Ghost" Riley your lieutenant. I will leave you two now, I have things to do back in America. And uh… try not to kill each other."

On that remark Shepherd left the room. _"If he doesn't kill me first" _John thought.

The man stepped out from the shadows. He was wearing a skull balaclava and sunglasses. _"Why would anyone wear that inside?" _John thought to himself, but decided not to say it out loud. He studied the man carefully before he decided to talk to him.

"Hello mate, I'm John the captain of the team. So you're the man Shepherd's been talking so much about eh? I hope we will be able to make a great team." John put out his hand, and he could see the other man staring at him through the sunglasses. He was sure the man wanted to kill him.

"Okay… first things first captain. I am not in any way your mate; however that might be able to change through time, but definitely not right now. Second, I don't know what Shepherd has told you about me, and to be honest I don't really care. And third… I am not you're mate."

The man started walking out of the room.

"Where did you get the name ghost?" John asked.

"You'll find out one day or another… Sir."

"_Sir_" John thought. He had just met the man, and apparently he had already figured out, how much he hated to be called sir.

"Well, this'll be fun" John sighed as he left the room.


	2. Chapter 2: A New Friend

John sighed; he knew he had to do this. He had been thinking for hours on how to break the news, but still he didn't seem to know how.

"Come on John, pull yourself together. It won't be as bad as you think. Just go in there and tell him. He won't kill you." He said to himself trying to knock on the door.

"Depends on what is sir." Ghost said. MacTavish turned around and he could see Ghost smile under his mask. Or at least he thought he was. Perfectly aware that it was because he had made him jump. How did he even get there? He thought he had been sitting in his room all day.

"Uh… We have a mission. We have two hours to get ready and then a chopper will come get us. Make sure you dress warm. Russia is bloody cold this time a year." John said, completely ignoring the fact that Ghost had just managed to scare him.

"Sir, you do know we don't have a team, right?" Ghost said, as he looked intensely at his captain, trying to figure him out.

"I know. But it's a two-man job. Small base, very few people. We just have to get in, grab a couple of files, and get out. I know it's never that easy. But we will have to go stealthily, and with a bit of luck, we should be able to do it." John answered. Of course he knew they didn't have a team yet. And yes he had a bad feeling about this, but they had to do it. No matter if they liked it or not.

Ghost nodded and walked away, in the direction of the armory.

"Bit of luck. The place is going to be a fucking deathtrap, but maybe we can get a little luck from whatever little pot of gold that leprechaun's hiding." Ghost mumbled as he walked away.

"It's the Irish who has pots o' gold." MacTavish yelled back, to his lieutenant. "Whatever." Ghost yelled back.

_Several hours later…_

They were about to land in Russia. It had been a long flight, _especially when you have to be with someone who hates your guts_, John thought. He looked at his lieutenant, wondering about how he looked. He had barely seen him since he met him, and that was two days ago now. But how did he look under the mask. The only thing he could see, and that wasn't even a lot, was his eyes. As on cue Ghost took of the sunglasses for a little while. They were in a deep blue color. Quite beautiful, but also scarred of previous incidents.

"Sir, what the bloody hell are you staring at?" Ghost said putting his sunglasses back on. MacTavish looked confused for a few seconds before realizing he had been starring at the man.

"Nothing lieutenant, just nothing" MacTavish replied as the chopper landed.

_15 minutes later…_

They wandered through the forest, when John decided it would be faster and maybe a bit safer if they split up the rest of the way. Ghost had thought the same thing, and before he knew it he was off. John moved silently, checking everywhere to make sure no one was around. This entire time he hadn't seen anyone, it worried him, but they had to continue. He picked up his radio.

"Ghost I have the target building in sight. Where are you?"

"I'm right here sir." Ghost said as MacTavish turned around to see him standing behind him. He started to get the feel of why Ghost was called Ghost. He was able to move around without being noticed, the enemy saw him, then they didn't, and before they knew it, they were dead. He had the ability to disappear, and kill without being noticed. He was a true ghost.

"When we're done here, you'll have to put in a full report on how you do that." MacTavish said. Ghost was clearly not amused, so he told Ghost to keep moving.

They went in the building, and still no one was there. They saw the files on the table, made sure they weren't rigged, and picked them up.

"Where the hell is everyone? I didn't even see anyone on the way here." Ghost said. MacTavish was sure he could see frustration in Ghost's eyes.

"I've been thinking the sa-" MacTavish stopped in the middle of his sentence as he heard something.

"Um, captain I think we should move!" Ghost yelled.

As soon as they got outside they were shot at. There were about 50+ tangos, shooting at them. They ran as fast as they could and took cover.

"Baseplate, we need immediate extraction, we fell into an ambush but we have the package!" MacTavish yelled into his radio.

"We will be there soon, ETA 5 minutes." They answered back.

"WE'RE GONNA BE BLOODY DEAD IN FIVE MINUTES!" Ghost yelled. They were barely able to hold their ground right now. It felt like it had been hours when the chopper finally came.

"COME ON GHOST, THE CHOPPER'S HERE!" MacTavish yelled.

"Watch out!" Ghost pushed MacTavish out of the way as they heard a bullet moving through the air, right were MacTavish had been. They ran for the chopper. MacTavish jumped in, but then looked at Ghost. He had a bullet hole in the chest.

"G-Ghost" MacTavish said. Ghost followed his captain's eyes, and saw the bullet hole in his chest. The red stain started spreading and Ghost collapsed into his captain's arms.

_Many hours later…_

MacTavish had been sitting and keeping an eye on Ghost. He finally started moving and MacTavish went over to him.

"How are you doing, Ghost?" MacTavish asked slightly concerned.

"I'm doing just fine mate. Especially for someone who just got shot." Ghost said sarcastically.

MacTavish chuckled, _at least that hasn't changed_, he said to himself. But he was also very surprised.

"You do know you just called me mate right?" MacTavish asked. Maybe the man had got injured worse than they thought.

"I know. I guess I changed my mind, just like I said. I guess you're not as bad as I thought, you did make sure I didn't die." Ghost said as he looked at MacTavish.

"YOU saved ME, Ghost. I owe you." MacTavish answered.

"If I need a favor I'll come to you. By the way… I'm sorry for being an arse to you. I just have trouble trusting people." Ghost eyes went dark "some things happened in my past, which stopped me from trusting people. I guess I should learn how not to judge people to quick eh?"

MacTavish stared at the man, curious about his past, but he knew not to ask. If he felt like telling him, he would, he didn't want to push him into anything. That would probably just destroy whatever type of bond they had just got.

"Don't worry captain, I'll tell you sooner or later. I just don't feel ready for it yet." Ghost said, while he was trying to get out of the infirmary bed.

"Oh no you don't! You're staying here. I'll be back soon enough; I just have to get some things. You want me to get you anything?" MacTavish said pushing Ghost back onto the bed.

"My laptop would be nice captain."

MacTavish nodded "You can call me Tav. My friends have always called me that." MacTavish said smiling as he walked out of the room.

**Ending of chapter 2 YAY! Please review and tell me if you liked it or not, it really helps. I am going to write about Roach, Meat and Royce, and Archer and Toad in this series (which is about how they joined, and how the TF started). Do you guys have anyone else you would like to get in the story? Please tell me and I'll take a look at it :D**


	3. Chapter 3: The Mask Thief

MacTavish heard Ghost knocking on the door to his office, and told him to come in. Ghost had a lot of files in his hands, and MacTavish immediately knew what it was. It was time for recruits. MacTavish saw that the files looked heavy, so he quickly got up to help him.

"I can do it on my own Tav, bloody hell!" Ghost yelled as MacTavish tried to help him. MacTavish knew he wasn't one for relaxing or asking for help. So he had to forced him to give him the files. Ghost shouldn't carry anything heavy; he was still in pain from the incident in Russia, the mission which made them friends.

"You shouldn't be carrying these around, they're too heavy. You need to RELAX." MacTavish said to his lieutenant. Ghost just gave him the evil eye, and then sat down on a chair, putting his hand on his wound. The look on his face told MacTavish, that eventhough he wouldn't admit it, he was still in pain.

"Apparently Shepherd thought it was time for recruits, want to look through them?" Ghost asked. MacTavish nodded.

They started going through the folders, putting everyone who they found promising in one pile, and the ones who they didn't believe to survive a day, they threw in the bin.

"Many of these guys are so young." MacTavish said as he shook his head.

"Well, I'm not that old either" Ghost replied. MacTavish looked at the man. He had never thought about his age until now. And even if he had, it would be difficult to determine his age because of his balaclava.

"How old are you? It's hard to guess with that mask on." MacTavish said. Ghost looked at his captain and removed his sunglasses. MacTavish was staring. Then the man pulled of his mask and ruffled his hair a bit, so it was sitting somewhat nice. He had brown hair and he needed a haircut. His face was young but still very serious, because of his troubled past. _He's not bad looking. He's quite handsome, definitely a ladies man. _MacTavish thought to himself.

"Well, I'm 26… How old are you then?" He asked. MacTavish looked at his lieutenant quite surprised. He had thought he was way older.

"I'm 29. To be honest I thought you were older. I guess the mask made me believe so." MacTavish said. Ghost chuckled and went back to the folders.

"Well, so far we have: Jackson "Chemo" Williams, Andrew "Robot" Holloway, Darren "Rocket" Carver, Ben "Pharaoh" Hall, Joseph "Neon" Carter and finally Derek "Pieces" Webb."

MacTavish nodded and decided to go call Shepherd, let him know who they had picked and hoped he would take care of the rest. Fortunately for MacTavish, Shepherd told him he would call them immediately and let them know they had the opportunity to join TF-141.

MacTavish went back to his office but Ghost was gone. All of the sudden he could hear Ghost swearing outside.

"Oh my fucking god! What the hell does he expect from us? Does he think we can put a bloody team together on one day? Bloody hell, I hope that bastard burns in hell!" Ghost yelled from outside, his accent now too thick to understand.

MacTavish went outside to see what was wrong. As he went out he saw Ghost carrying three large boxes.

"You alright mate" MacTavish asked concerned.

"No I'm not bloody alright! He sent us more files." Ghost yelled. MacTavish helped with the boxes. They brought them inside and opened them. They were full of files. It would take them hours to get through them.

"I… hate… paperwork…" MacTavish angrily said as he stared at all the files.

"I guess we better get back to work…" Ghost said, still furious.

_Several hours later…_

They had been sitting at the desk for hours looking through the files. They had found most of the people incompetent, and only two had stood out.

"I guess we are down to these two: Martin "Archer" Harris and Charles "Toad" Simpson. Both of them are snipers, and they are pretty damn good at it. I think they'll become vital assets to the team sir." Ghost said tiredly, he looked like he hadn't slept in days.

MacTavish agreed and called Shepherd again. Shepherd made sure the two men got a phone call.

"Good job MacTavish. It looks like you are getting a team on its feet." Shepherd said before ending the call.

_Three days later…_

"You ready?" MacTavish asked Ghost. The recruits were coming today. They had got everything ready, the cook had also been sent there. MacTavish and Ghost had cooked for each other since they were only two. It was lucky they hadn't died yet.

"Don't be too hard on them Ghost. They are new here and most of them are just kids. I doubt any of them has been in these types of combat, which we will put them through."

"Don't worry. But I'll have to put them through some rough training, to make sure they are doing their best. I have to push them to their limits to make sure they are up for the challenge. We are the best, and they have to be the best. I'll only push them for their own good." Ghost answered.

MacTavish patted him on the back and looked down the road as he saw the bus approach the base. _Here we go _he thought. He watched as Ghost walked up to the bus and positioned himself in front of it. The recruits started walking out, taking their bags and looking around.

"In line!" Ghost shouted and the recruits quickly did as he said. "Okay welcome to the 141 base. This will be where you live until we get to go on leave for a little while. You will not be allowed to leave the perimeter, except for on your day off. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." All the recruits shouted.

"Good. I'm Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley. I will be the one conducting your training every morning. We start at 5 am, with running 3 miles every morning, followed up by the obstacle course, what happens the rest of the day will be something the captain and I will plan. When we tell you we are done for the day, you can do what you want. I expect you to push yourselves as much as possible, because we are the best."

"Yes sir" the recruits yelled again. Now it was MacTavishes turn.

"Hello, I'm Captain John MacTavish. Welcome to the team. While you're here you will have to live through dangerous missions who will have an impact on the rest of the world. We get missions no one else will be able to handle. And if we fail, it might have severe consequences for the rest of the world. I expect you to put your trust in eachother, and work together. Right now, the lieutenant and I might seem as the enemy, but were not that bad. This is just the formal crap we have to go through."

The recruits laughed and so did Ghost. That was a rare sight.

"But again welcome to the team, I hope we will all get along. Ghost will now make sure everyone's here."

Ghost went up to the recruit calling out their names and asking for their callsigns.

"I guess we're done. Follow us into the base." Ghost said and all the recruits picked up their stuff and followed him and the captain in.

"Okay. You have to be four in each room, and we already made groups. If anyone has something to say about the groups, do so as I call you up. Jackson "Chemo" Williams, Derek "Pieces" Webb, Martin "Archer" Harris and Charles "Toad" Simpson will be in room number 1, while the rest of you will stay in room number two. Any problems with the groups?"

Everyone shook their heads, and just looked at the lieutenant.

"Okay dismissed" MacTavish said. Everyone started walking slowly into their rooms, as MacTavish heard someone whisper: "you think he'll do it?" said the man named Chemo, "Nah he's too much of a pussy" said a man who MacTavish believed to be Archer. MacTavish was suspicious and for a good reason, all of the sudden the man called Toad threw everything he had, ran up to Ghost and pulled his mask right of. He took off at an incredible speed yelling "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" while Ghost took off after him.

Everyone ran with them to see what happened. Ghost was chasing Toad all over the perimeter. All off the sudden all the new recruits turned around as they heard someone laughing.

It was MacTavish, he was laughing so hard tears started rolling down his cheeks. Everyone started laughing with him, as Toad was running for his life. Archer apparently regretted what MacTavish assumed to be a challenge, and decided to go help his friend, but it ended up being him who was chased. Toad had thrown the mask at Archer and before Archer could even run Ghost tackled him. Toad ran back to the rest of the recruits and sought protection, while Archer took a hard punch in the stomach. Ghost took back his mask and put Archer over his shoulder and walked back to the others. Clearly he didn't care he was still injured.

When Ghost came back to the others with Archer over his shoulder, screaming bloody murder, they all just looked at Ghost and said to eachother to never do that again.

All of the sudden the man named Chemo spoke "Holy shit man! You're pretty beast!" Everyone nodded. Ghost just looked at them and said "I know, I know… I'm pretty awesome." He said and everyone started laughing.

"You're a pretty awesome captain to sir." They said to MacTavish who just smiled as an answer.

"I think we're going to have fun" MacTavish said to his recruits, who finally calmed down and decided it was time to go unpack and fight over who would get the top bunk.

**To Kokoro02: thanks for the idea in the previous chapter. It was pretty good; it's definitely something I'll keep in mind. Hope you like this chapter :D**

**To Seal57: Don't worry it's Scarecrow's and Ozone's turn next time. I just forgot to write them on the list. Worm will also be joining next chapter :P**

**And to everyone, thank you for reading my story, and thanks for your support. Don't worry, I still have some chapters on my mind, so I'm not ending this just yet.. It will probably take a while before I do that :D**

**Next chapter will be about Scarecrow, Ozone and the little too quiet and shy Worm. Wonder what he's up to. Afterwards I think it might be time for a little Meat, Royce and Roach :P**


	4. Chapter 4: Welcome to the Freakshow

MacTavish went through the base common room. All the guys were doing their own thing. Archer and Toad were fighting on the floor, because they both wanted to try the new scope first, eventhough MacTavish had ordered another one. It was just a little late for god's sake. The rest of the guys were playing cards or talking. Things had got a little crazy since the guys got there.

Archer and Toad usually fought over everything they could. They would make eachother do stupid stuff, like who was the better ninja. Toad had challenged Archer to crawl up into their flagpost and jump onto the roof of the base. Of course Archer took the challenge, and it ended up with a damaged roof (which they had just got fixed), and Archer twisting his ankle. That must have been three days ago, and now they were at it again.

MacTavish shook his head, went into his office, and found Ghost lying across the table. The poor guy finally got some sleep. He had told MacTavish that he had some nightmares which kept him from sleeping. He hadn't been sleeping for days.

"Ghost? Wake up mate. Go to your room and sleep." MacTavish said, however the lieutenant didn't answer. He went up to him, grabbed his arm and shook him lightly. Ghost had sharp reflexes, grabbed his captains' arm, twisted it to his back and slammed him down on the table.

"MacTavish?" Ghost asked and quickly released his captain. "I'm sorry mate. I didn't know it was you." Ghost said.

"You got some nice reflexes." MacTavish chuckled, as he looked at Ghost. MacTavish got up rubbing his arm. "You should teach some of that to Archer and Toad. I don't want the roof damaged again. What were you doing anyway?" MacTavish asked.

"I was looking through more files." Ghost said "I found four more, take a look." He reached over the table and gave MacTavish four files. MacTavish sat down.

"Okay so we have Thomas "Scarecrow" Hughes, Tim "Bishop" Clark, Ryan "Ozone" McAllister and Pete "Worm" Henderson. Scarecrow and Ozone knows eachother, they are both very good in light assault rifles and are very fast. Sounds good, I just hope they are not another Archer and Toad. And Worm looks to be an aspiring hacker. Maybe you could teach him some things, and he is also very good with demolitions. Guess we have more guys for the team." MacTavish said. He decided to make Shepherd deal with now.

_20 minutes later…_

"Okay guys listen up! In a few days we will be getting more guys on the team. Try not to act to crazy and scare them away eh?" Ghost said. Everyone told him they would behave, Ghost and MacTavish was not so sure though. They had a way of disregarding orders when it came to acting like normal sane people.

_3 days later…_

The truck pulled up outside the house, and MacTavish and Ghost were waiting. The newcomers were here, and they would have to give them the speech. MacTavish hated it but he had to do it. It was in the protocol.

They got off the truck and looked around. When they saw who they believed was the people in charge, they hurried it up and got in line. _Here we go again_ MacTavish thought to himself.

After the speech, MacTavish and Ghost showed them to their rooms. They were all put in the same room.

"Strange one, that Worm eh?" Ghost said looking at his captain. He was right. Worm did seem a little strange, he had been unusually quiet. But hey, maybe he was just a quiet guy. Scarecrow, Ozone and Bishop on the other hand, had been loud. They were like the other guys, as crazy as can be. Especially Scarecrow and Ozone, on the short tour around the base, they had a competition in something they called "Gay Chicken". The only thing MacTavish saw though was two men acting very gay. Not that he was prejudice or anything _Whatever floats your boat_ he had always said. But in the middle of the hallway, couldn't they keep it down till they got to their room. Ghost on the other hand had just laughed.

After they guys had put their stuff in place, they wanted to meet the other guys. MacTavish called them all together so they would be able to meet. He was very surprised. Everyone acted civilized. That was new, very new indeed. They didn't even bother acting normal around their captain. But then MacTavish noticed something. Worm had just greeted the others, but now he was gone. He couldn't just disappear.

"Ghost, have you seen Worm?" MacTavish asked, looking around the room.

"No sir, I haven't. Wasn't he here a second ago?" Ghost asked mildly confused. MacTavish nodded. Oh well, perhaps he was a loner. All of the sudden he heard two loud screams. He turned around to find Archer and Scarecrow torturing Toad and Ozone. Apparently they had teamed up, and poor Toad and Ozone were losing.

"That didn't last long" MacTavish sighed. But then everything got worse. A few guys do something crazy and then everything falls apart. In a few seconds everyone starts becoming lunatics. Bishop was running around with Pharaoh screaming. Chemo, Robot and rocket were running around like lunatics and Neon and Pieces were arguing about something which had happened in Spongebob.

MacTavish looked at Ghost and saw he was just as confused as MacTavish himself was.

"I'm scared sir." Ghost said. "When they act like that in front of their superiors and 10 minutes after they meet the new guys, who knows what they will do to us when we sleep." Ghost said with a worried look on his face. MacTavish nodded, now also thinking of the risk of whatever could happen in their sleep. All of the sudden everyone went quiet. MacTavish heard a weird dragging sound. He and Ghost turned around looking in the direction the other guys were looking.

"Oh god…" Ghost moaned. MacTavish had for the first time in his life turned speechless. He really didn't know what to say. Well… they had found Worm, or Worm had found them. He was lying in his sleeping bag, on the floor, moving like a worm while he was screaming like a banshee. Apparently the other guys didn't find it weird. They just went back to doing what they were doing before, leaving Ghost and MacTavish paralyzed.

"Sir… permission to commit suicide?" Ghost said while staring at the freakshow in front of them. "No Ghost, you can't leave me alone with them. You're the only sane person around here. Don't leave me... please don't leave me. I'm scared." MacTavish said.

Ghost nodded while he slowly backed out of the room. MacTavish decided to follow his example. No way he was staying in there. They were on the way down a hallway when they heard something. They turned around, to see Worm creeping and squirming around the corner still screaming, leading the rest of the army of freaks which called themselves soldiers.

"Bloody hell… RUN!" MacTavish yelled, as he and Ghost tried to escape, but it was all to no avail, as they were still following them. This was going to be a LONG night.

**Hey guys, here's chapter 4. Sorry for the long wait. I have just been so busy with school, plus I've had a writers block. I know it's been awhile, but I'm back to publishing. I know this chapter was super weird, but that was just what I imagined when I thought about Worm. Hope it wasn't to strange XD Next chapter will be about Meat, Royce and Roach. Remember to review so you can tell me what you think, as it always helps, and keep an eye out for the next chapter :)**


	5. Chapter 5: Team Up!

MacTavish was exhausted; he hadn't slept for at least 3 days. Not after all the guys had gone crazy. Worm squirming around on the floor in his sleeping bag screaming and everyone else freaking out. God that had been terrifying, they had got out of control, but what to do. They had even managed to get Ghost scared, and that says a lot.

Sometimes he wished that Price would be there, just to see the look on his face, and watch him explode with anger. MacTavish chuckled and then became very sad. He missed Price, he might have been a tough old man, but he was sort of a father figure. However, no one knew what happened to Price. He hadn't seen him since Kamarov got them off the bridge.

Someone knocked on the door, and Ghost stepped in. He looked even more tired than himself. But then again, who knows when he had last slept, especially with the nightmares and the recent traumatization.

"You okay Tav?" Ghost asked as he looked at his captain. MacTavish nodded, knowing Ghost didn't believe him, but he accepted it. MacTavish stared at the box of files Ghost brought in.

"Yay, more paperwork, I guess we have to look for more recruits eh?" MacTavish said slightly annoyed. Ghost just nodded for an answer, he was just as annoyed as him. Lately Shepherd had basically bombed them with files. He had decided they would need at least four more guys on the team, and then they would only need to find more, when someone died. Apparently he really believed in them staying alive.

"I'm so tired of all this paperwork. Day in and day out, we have to look at these files. He doesn't even bother sending us someone we can use. It's like he just picks who's on top of the pile and hands the shit over to us! I mean bloody hell mate, can't he do anything himself. And everyone he finds ends up being complete whack jobs." Ghost said, staring into the pile of files in front of him. He was right though. They had been overrun, and so far no one would work!

"I know Ghost, but we have to do this." MacTavish said as he looked through the files.

_2 hours later…_

MacTavish threw the last file away. He had only found two new men who seemed capable. Ghost didn't seem to have more luck either. However Shepherd had said at least four, so they had done their job.

"I have an Eric "Meat" Mayfield, and a Jeffrey "Royce" Webber." Said MacTavish. Ghost didn't even bother asking for their specials.

"I have a Gary "Roach" Sanderson, and a Frederick "Angel" Albright. However this Roach guy is very young. He's only just turned 20." Ghost said looking into the file. "But he is a sergeant and he must have done something to deserve that title."

"Aye, sounds fine to me, guess we'll just keep an eye on him, and make sure he can stand his ground." MacTavish said not really concerned, because as Ghost said, he should have done something to deserve his title. And if not, they would find out pretty quick.

_2 days later…_

Ghost was leading the way for the new recruits on the way to their room. They had all stayed quiet right until Ghost asked them a question, he should never have asked.

"Okay that was all. Does anyone have any questions?" Ghost said looking rather bored at the new recruits. The one named Roach started getting uneasy. He was looking around with a childish grin on his face. _Oh no…_ MacTavish thought.

"Well I have one" he said, and Ghost nodded. "What's with the mask and stuff?" He said and looked excited at his new superior.

"I… I just like-"

""Do you EVER take it off?!" Roach interrupted.

"Well if you would let me fini-"

"It'sooo cool. Where do you get them? I said them because it would be gross if you only had one I mean…" Roach kept talking. It felt like the stream of words would never end. MacTavish noticed Ghost tensing up, and apparently the other recruits noticed to. The one named Angel started poking Roach. He had started to look nervous.

"Whaaaaaaaaaat?!" Roach asked and looked at Angel. Angel just shook his head. Somehow Ghost managed to keep his cool, and answered some of Roache's questions.

"I wear it because it lets me stay unknown and I like that. Yes I have more than one, and yes I do take it off." Ghost said unusually calm.

Roach nodded, and then he looked like he had an idea.

"Oh god no…" MacTavish whispered to himself. He really didn't feel like having to scrape Roach off the floor. Slowly Roach moved a little forward and then…

"BOOP!" Roach yelled as he poked Ghost nose through the mask and ran away laughing.

"NONONONONO!" MacTavish yelled as he tried to stop Ghost from running after Roach. It was difficult, but he managed to keep him from following him. But only just.

"Let it go mate! Let it go!" MacTavish said and looked hopefully at Ghost. Ghost was close to smacking him on the side of the head, but he controlled himself. MacTavish knew he had to talk to Roach… for his own good.

_Later that day…_

"Roach I need to talk to you. It's important." MacTavish said looking at Roach. The Sergeant looked confused at MacTavish but nodded and followed him. MacTavish led Roach into his office and sat down on a chair. He then nodded at the chair on the other side of the desk, to make Roach sit.

"Can we hurry this up a bit? Spongebob begins soon!" Roach said happily.

"Well, I want to talk to you about Ghost." MacTavish said.

"Oh…" Roach answered and knew what MacTavish wanted to talk about.

"Rule number 1 about Ghost: don't prank him. Rule number 2: don't touch his mask and rule number 3: never… and I mean NEVER, for whatever reason it might be, don't randomly touch him!"

"But… I just booped his nose…" Roach said.

"That might be, but don't. I really don't want to scrape you off the floor after he's done with you." MacTavish said seriously. Because he knew that if Ghost got to him, he WOULD have to scrape him off the floor.

"Okay I'll stop doing that I guess…" the sergeant said looking sad. He then got up and left the room. For some reason MacTavish felt bad about making the kid sad. He didn't mean to make him sad. _No! you're not going to baby him! _MacTavish said to himself. He was just another recruit eventhough he was young.

_The next day…_

MacTavish and Ghost decided to take all the guys to a nearby forest for combat training. They would send them out in two teams of eight. They had set up some challenges involving, stealth, melee combat, and shooting and the team with the most points would win. It also involved them shooting at eachother, so they had been given airsoft guns.

"You guys ready?" Ghost asked and all the guys answered with yells and cheers. The game was on. "3… 2… 1… GO!" Yelled Ghost and all the guys ran off to a place where they would be able to check their maps. Ghost and MacTavish headed to their little control room. They had set up cameras where the different post where to make sure no one cheated, and keep an eye on everything so they could give them points. Everyone had also been given an earpiece so they could hear what score they had got.

_20 minutes later…_

MacTavish was watching the team with Toad as the captain. They had chosen him as the captain of the team; because they were sure he had some hidden skills as a leader. Usually he was the one getting picked on, but now they had to respect him. And he was actually doing pretty well, because right now they were in the lead. They took the tasks very seriously, maybe even a little too much so they forgot to have fun at the same time.

Ghost was watching the other team with Roach as the captain. They had chosen him to see if he would be able to put away the VERY childish side of himself. And so far it was 50/50. Sometimes he ran around like a little kid playing in the bushes, and at other times he acted very serious, because he wanted to win. But eventhough they weren't in the lead, they found it more interesting to have fun. MacTavish found it interesting to see how the different teams acted.

"-30 points to your team Roach. Another time don't let Roach be in charge of the stealth assignments, because it seems like he's just as quiet as an elephant." Ghost said and laughed a little as all the guys sighed and laughed at the same time. Roach just put his arms out and said "What?! That couldn't get any quieter, eventhough I did fall over my own feet a couple of times… and I almost got myself injured falling off that boulder. But hey you have to admit I have some pretty cat-like moves at times" He said laughing.

"Roach… I guess I have to offer you some private stealth lessons, because that was pathetic…" Ghost sighed and Roache's teammates laughed. Roach now started to look sad. And MacTavish could see that it even got to Ghost… Even he couldn't stand the kid being sad.

"Tav, do something mate I… I can't watch him like that no matter how little I want to admit it…" Ghost said embarrassed.

"Don't worry he got to me too" MacTavish said and shook his head. "Roach don't worry, he might still be mad at you, but he'll clear up sooner or later. You just have to try and get on his good side." MacTavish said and the kid lighted right back up.

_30 minutes later…_

"Hello everyone, welcome to your last assignment. This is the airsoft challenge, we will be watching you from over here and award you with points if you do well and withdraw points if you do terribly. And remember this might be what makes you win." MacTavish said and looked at all the recruits. When he told them to, they all ran over to the equipment and got ready.

"You guys ready?" Ghost asked and everyone nodded "Good then… GO!" He said and everyone started out running for cover. They clearly ran through what you would do in regular combat. Find cover, point and shoot. They also knew that now was one of the times where they would be able to make a good impression on their superiors.

They kept a sharp eye on all the contestants, and gave points when they thought they needed it. They were doing great out there, they could see they had chosen the right guys for the team.

_30 minutes later…_

There was still 5 guys on the field but it was time to stop.

"OKAY EVERYONE PUT DOWN YOUR GUNS! THE COMPETITION IS OVER!" Ghost yelled and everyone put down their guns and tried to catch their breath.

"We will go put the points together, and then announce the winning team of the competition." Ghost told them and everyone seemed sure they had won. They all went to the base common room and sat down, it had been a hard day. But in the meantime Ghost and MacTavish counted points.

"Well it's seems like they won, and about the extra reward, we agree on that as well?" MacTavish said. Ghost nodded and they went to the common room.

"Okay are you guys ready to hear the results?" Ghost said and everyone was getting impatient.

"The winner of the competition, with a total of 790 points is… Toads team." Toads team started cheering "You had some supreme leadership from Toad, he made sure everyone stayed focused and remembered their objective. However, you guys should let yourselves have a little more fun with this competition. But you get this award and you get to decide the next weeks meals." Ghost said.

"But we're not done yet. We have an extra award for the best shooter at the airsoft field and at the shooting assignment in the competition. That award goes too… Roach. You did supreme at the target shooting and at the airsoft game. It has been a while since I've seen anyone that good. You're talented with a gun Roach. And because of that you get to choose what we're going to do tonight after dinner." MacTavish said.

Roach lighted up like a Christmas tree as he was handed the award.

"Oh… I know exactly what we're going to do… We're going to have a movie night." Roach said and everyone seemed happy with that decision. MacTavish was a little worried though; he was worried about what they would have to watch.

_That evening…_

Everyone sat in front of the TV, they had got popcorn and everything else they could find. Then Roach walked in with his superman pajamas and something behind his back, supposedly the movie.

"What are we watching Roach?" Royce asked.

"Well we're watching… HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL! THE MOST AWSOME MOVIE EVER BECAUSE THERE'S SINGING AND DANCING AND SINGING!" Roached yelled smiling like a five-year old and started to sing something from one of the songs, which MacTavish believed to be "We're all in this together".

Everyone sighed but hey, they made Roach happy.

**Whoop Ending of chapter 5! I know there has been some long waits, but I'm so busy lately. I think I have presented everyone who I have found interesting. Now I was thinking about changing it all up a bit. **

**So far everything has been going a little fast, with some fast presentations and some pretty vague explanations of certain things. However, I was thinking about making some chapter where I explain things some more. Especially the relationship between Soap and Ghost. Because I think everyone by now would have made Ghost pack up and leave, because he's basically an arrogant bastard who doesn't respect his captain. But there has been some things going on which I intend to explain. **

**I also expect to make a chapter about Soap's thoughts about being a captain, and what he has to deal with. Hope you'll like those as well when I publish those ;)**

**Of course I also need to make something about the entire TF's first mission, and some more fun episodes. (No need to be so serious all the time ;D)**

**Remember to review and tell me what you think, and keep an eye out for the next chapter. See you soon guys :)**


	6. Chapter 6: Heart to Heart

MacTavish was sitting at his desk, looking out the window. It was raining, and that was something he could feel on the guys. None of them wanted to do anything. Even Ghost had asked if he could cancel morning training. MacTavish had said yes because he knew something was wrong. Ghost NEVER cancelled morning training; he usually didn't care if he had to personally drag their arse out of bed, and threaten them to keep them running. So something was wrong.

Ghost had seemed exceptionally depressed lately. He was never a happy guy, and you had to be lucky to see him smile. Usually when he smiled, it was so fake that even Pamela Anderson boobs seemed real. And that says a lot. The others might not notice and they might believe it, but MacTavish knew. He had only seen a real smile from Ghost once.

MacTavish decided to look for Ghost; however, he was nowhere to be found. He had checked every single room at the base, but he wasn't there. Usually he would just sit in his room, but it was empty.

"Meat, Royce! Have you seen Ghost?" MacTavish asked. The two men looked confused.

"No sir. We haven't seen him since he cancelled training this morning. Is he okay? It doesn't look like him to do something like that." Meat said. "By the way… have you seen Roach sir? We have a… surprise… for him." Royce added.

"I don't know if Ghost is okay, that's why I'm looking for him. And no I haven't seen Roach." MacTavish replied as the two men nodded and walked away.

"You okay Roach? Why are they after you this time?" MacTavish said, while looking at the door to the bathroom, where Roach had hidden right before Meat and Royce came.

"I don't know sir. I'll just stay out of their way today. But about Ghost, what's going on? He has seemed very depressed lately." Roach said mildly concerned. For some reason Roach really like Ghost and tried to become his friend. However, Ghost tried to stay as far away from Roach as possible. He wasn't exactly interested in their friendship.

"I don't know what's going on with Ghost, that's why I'm trying to find him." MacTavish replied as he walked away to find Ghost.

* * *

MacTavish walked down to the lake, and looked at the big rock at the water, and there he was. Ghost was sitting on the rock, looking down into the water. MacTavish was standing behind a tree watching him.

"Tav, stop hiding, I know you're there…" Ghost said staring into the water.

"Hi mate, what are you doing out here?" MacTavish said as he walked over to the rock and sat down next to his friend. He then reached down into his pocket and offered Ghost a cigarette. Ghost just looked at him and took the cigarette as MacTavish lighted it.

"I'm just… sitting here. It's quiet out here and I like it." Ghost said. MacTavish knew he was lying. He wasn't stupid.

"Ghost… don't lie to me. I'm not stupid, what's going on. You've been more depressed than usually for a while. Tell me about it." MacTavish said staring at Ghost.

"It's just… my past. It tends to catch up with me at various times. And there's nothing I can really do about it. Just give me a couple of days." Ghost said knowing what MacTavish was going to say next.

"It helps to talk about it. Tell me, you can always come talk to me if you want." MacTavish said. It wasn't something he said because he felt like he had to. He really wanted to help his friend.

"I… Okay. Well it all started from when I was a kid really. My father had never been a good guy. He had thing about dangerous animals. He used to bring them back home and threaten to kill me with them. I grew up and joined the military. After a while I ended up joining the S.A.S. A while after, when I came back from service, I found out that my father had cheated on my mother numerous times, and that my little brother had become a drug addict."

MacTavish just looked at his friend, not knowing what to say. Ghost had barely told him anything and he already felt bad for him. However he had a feeling that everything was about to get a lot worse.

"After I had tried to fix their lives I went back into service. I was supposed to go to Iran but I was sent to Zaragoza in Spain instead, to take down a drug cartel which was leaded by a guy called Manuel Roba."

Ghost had said the man's name with a lot of despise. MacTavish knew that he was probably the reason for why Ghost was so miserable all the time.

"We were supposed to go after Roba, but our commander had betrayed us. Three of us were captured. They tortured us and tried to brainwash us. I am not sure how long it lasted, but it felt like months… it seemed to never end. Then they decided it would be a good idea to bury me alive. I took this opportunity to escape and got back home."

MacTavish didn't know what to say he was paralyzed. He was about to say something when Ghost continued the story.

"It took me about four months to recover fully. And there I still had anger management classes, so the military wouldn't accept me back in, before I had finished that. I was feeling terrible and found one of my teammates Kevin Sparks. I just wanted to talk to him about what had happened. We went to a bar to talk, but he was acting suspicious saying that Roba was a friend and saying we should take advice from him. We left the bar, but Kevin, as the wanker he was, found this girl which he decided it would be a good idea to rape. I managed to stop him and we ran to an inn, before the police came."

MacTavish gave Ghost another cigarette. He could see that the man needed it. He looked very distant as like he was living through it again. He felt horrible for putting his friend through it, but it also felt like Riley needed to talk. So he just continued to listen.

"We got a room at the inn, and as soon as we got there I pulled a knife at Sparks and demanded for him to tell me what was going on. He told me he wanted to go back to Roba. Then another teammate arrived, Marcus Washington. He pulled a gun on me and forced me to leave. After several months they…"

Ghost stopped talking and looked into the water. He then tried to look away but MacTavish had already seen it. A tear rolled down Ghost's cheek and he coughed lightly. He wiped away the tear and continued.

"Washington and Sparks had killed my entire family… I hunted both of them down. It took me 6 months to find them because they kept changing locations. But then I killed Washington in his sleep and forced Sparks back to my family's house, then I killed him. Then I went after Roba. It took me a year but then I found his right-hand man. I tortured information out of his him. Then several months I found Roba and killed him…"

Ghost went quiet for a minute and then he spoke again.

"When I left the compound I was approached by Shepherd and was recruited for the Task Force. And now I'm here. I think I have told you everything now…" Ghost said looking into the water.

MacTavish stared at his lieutenant. _Everything had just happened?!_

"So… all of this was recent?" MacTavish asked confused.

"Aye. I joined the military when I was 20 so that is 6 years ago. I ended up in the S.A.S a year after. We were in Zaragoza 3 years ago. I think the torture lasted maybe a month and then it took four to recover. I went to Sparks to talk maybe three months later. Then 4 months later they killed my family. It took me 6 months to hunt them down. After a year I got to Roba's guy, and 4 months later I took out Roba. Then I had a month of down time, and we have been here a month now."

"How have you been able to handle all of this?" MacTavish asked.

"I guess I don't… I have nightmares about my family and about Roba all the time, which explains why I barely sleep. The fear of sleeping because of the nightmares keeps me awake. And if I went to a doctor I would be declared clinically insane. I don't really know how to deal with it. I just spend the most of my time working; it kind of makes me forget."

"You shouldn't do that to yourself. Talking about it always helps. And I hope you feel better after telling me."

"I do, but I just need some time…"

"Of course, you can always come talk to me if you want." MacTavish said looking at Ghost. They ended up just sitting there for a while before walking back to the base.

* * *

**Hello everyone, that was chapter 6. I know it was kind of a very different style than what I have been doing so far, but I really felt like making a chapter like this. **

**It's basically Ghost's life and important for his and MacTavish's friendship (in my story at least). I know that if you go to the wiki, the years of all this happening doesn't really fit my story, but I altered it to fit in. Just saying so people don't start to complain about it :) **

**The next chapter will be about MacTavish and how he feels about everything. I hope you liked this chapter, eventhough it was kind of depressing and very different.**

**Remember to review and tell me what you think, and keep an eye out for the next chapter. See you soon guys :)**


	7. Chapter 7: A New Friend pt 2

**Hey, change of plans. I know I said I was going to make a chapter about MacTavish and his thoughts, but I just went through my story to find some inspiration, when I got a new idea. The chapter about MacTavish will be next time instead :D So enjoy this for now :)**

* * *

_MacTavish was sitting in his room extremely depressed, from what he had just been told by his lieutenant. He had had a terrible life. If he was him he had probably been sitting somewhere alone with a gun in his mouth. This showed MacTavish just how strong Ghost was. MacTavish ended up thinking back at the time where Ghost was shot, and remembered the day and conversation he had with Ghost's former CO._

The chopper was about to land and MacTavish could already see the doctors storming out of the base. He didn't know how bad it was, but he had a feeling it wasn't good. He took a look at his lieutenant who looked like he was doing worse and worse. MacTavish had tried his best at a temporary patch job, and for now, it was the only thing keeping Ghost from bleeding out.

"Okay get him on stretcher! We have to get him in surgery immediately!" The surgeon yelled. The rest of his small team worked fast and quickly started moving Ghost towards the infirmary.

MacTavish followed them to make sure Ghost was going to be taken good care of.

"Don't worry captain. We're going to bring him to surgery. I don't know how long it'll take, it really depends on how the bullet is positioned, but you will be informed as soon as we're done. I'll make sure he gets out of this alive." The doctor said. He knew exactly what questions MacTavish had, and that calmed him a bit.

At first he paced around. He didn't even know why he cared so much. The man was an asshole but somehow, he still felt some sort of bond to him. He had a feeling they had both seen some terrible things, and maybe that was it.

"Bloody hell, I knew that mission was going to take a turn for the bad! Whenever someone says it won't be bad, it always is." MacTavish said to himself wandering around.

He went to his office. He had to call Shepherd and tell him about the mission.

"Hello MacTavish. How did the mission go? You got the Intel?" Shepherd asked.

"Yes sir, I have the Intel, but the mission went horribly. Ghost is down, he's in surgery right now, and the Intel we had for the mission was way off. There were 50+ tangos."

"That does sound bad. I'll figure something out with the informant who gave us the information. And I hope Ghost is going to make it. Call me when he's out."

MacTavish informed Shepherd that he would make sure to do that. He put his head in his hands, and just sat there. What was he going to do until Ghost was out? He sat there for a while and decided to look at Ghost's file. Maybe there was something about the man in there, which could explain his behavior. Because if he wasn't going to start respecting his captain, he would have to send him packing.

MacTavish picked up his file and read through it. Former S.A.S soldier, the best in his line of work, and a name of a previous Captain. MacTavish stopped at the name of the Captain. Maybe if he gave him a call he could tell him something about Ghost. He looked him up in the military database and found his number. He needed some answers.

"Captain Henry Alistair. What can I help you with?" a rusty voice said at the other end of the line.

"Hello sir, this is Captain MacTavish of Task Force 141. I called you to ask you some que-"

"You're calling about Riley aren't you?" The man said.

"Yes sir. I was hoping you could tell me something about him." MacTavish answered.

"Well, I have been his captain twice. Right when he started in the S.A.S and recently before he joined the Task Force, right when his life started going south." The man said and was quiet for a while before continuing.

"Well I can't say he has ever been a normal recruit. He was dead serious about everything from the second he started. He was never a very talkative person which frustrated all of the other recruits. They were running around doing stupid things, while Riley was either training or practicing. To be honest I never figured out why he practiced as much as he did. From the moment he started I have to admit he was the best at everything we put him through."

"For some reason, that doesn't surprise me sir." MacTavish said to the older man and he could hear him chuckle.

"He was the fastest, the best at adapting to various situations and dare I say the smartest. He was also a master at work when it came to stealth. He had the ability to basically disappear right in front of you. One moment he was there, and if you looked away for a second, then he was gone. He was also a master at hacking. There is nothing he can't break in to."

"Yeah, I just experienced his stealth skills first hand. I don't know how he does it. But he always ends up behind me somehow, without me noticing. It's frustrating." MacTavish admitted.

"It was frustrating for us as well. Especially when he started teaching our best man in that line of work, at least before he showed up, in stealth. But as said he wasn't exactly talkative. He wasn't the big friend maker, and I assume that is also why you called me." He said and MacTavish came with a grunt as an answer.

"He preferred to keep to himself, and no one blamed him. It took me a while but I slowly managed to make him talk to me. And to be honest, I have never left a conversation as depressed, as I was after every time I had talked to him. I started to understand why he kept to himself. He has had a very traumatic life, but I will leave him to tell you about that. After some years he was transferred to a different team. And here his world basically collapsed, and again that is for him to tell."

"Of course sir. But what happened when he joined your team again?" MacTavish asked.

"He was a changed man. The little happiness he had in him before was definitely gone. He had become even colder than he was before, and he came with a new skill and appearance, torture as a skill and a skull balaclava. His hands trembled all the time which he tried to get away with shooting practice or alcohol, and he had insomnia. From here on out, the only times when he didn't tremble was when he was shooting, killing or torturing. He had become a killing machine. He definitely enjoyed busting out the cables."

MacTavish didn't know what to say. He had seen Ghost's hands tremble, and he knew he didn't really sleep, because he could hear him walking around in his room all night. He had even heard him have an emotional brake down. He wasn't sure if he knew he had heard, but he probably did.

"The other guys on the team, who he had known ever since he started, began becoming distant. I think he scared them a little. But there were still a few loyal friends. And then some very serious things happened, which are very recent, he told me about it, and with time I'm sure he'll tell you as well."

"So you think I should just give him some time to open up?" MacTavish asked.

"Aye, he has some serious trust issues, and he needs to push people to see if he finds them trustworthy. He might be pushing your buttons right now, but trust me, he will open up. I guess you have found out he has some… mental issues as well, but don't worry about that. And if he decides to kill you, it will be in your sleep, so it won't hurt." The man said with a chuckle. "How is he anyway?"

"He's in surgery for saving my arse." MacTavish said and the older man became quiet.

"I hope he is going to make it. Inform me will you?" He asked concerned.

"Of course." MacTavish said as he hung up.

MacTavish looked at the clock and saw he had spoken with Alistair for 2 hours. Then there was a knock on the door and he told the person to come in. It was a doctor.

"He will wake up soon sir. He made it, it wasn't easy though. He's definitely a survivor."

MacTavish thanked the man and followed him to the infirmary. Ghost wasn't awake yet so he sat down on a chair and waited. MacTavish had been sitting and keeping an eye on Ghost. He finally started moving and MacTavish went over to him.

"How are you doing, Ghost?" MacTavish asked slightly concerned.

"I'm doing just fine mate. Especially for someone who just got shot." Ghost said sarcastically.

MacTavish chuckled, _at least that hasn't changed_, he said to himself…

_20 minutes later…_

MacTavish was about to enter the infirmary when he noticed Ghost talking to a nurse.

"So how are you doing Mr. Riley? I know you just woke up, but I have to ask." She said smiling.

"I'm doing much better now that you are here. You can call me Simon" He said.

Apparently it worked on her because she started giggling and blushing. _I guess he knows how to work the ladies _MacTavish thought to himself chuckling.

"Simon… that is not going to work on me, I'm sorry. What's with the mask?" She asked still blushing, she might not want to admit it, but she liked it.

"You don't like the mask? For you it's gone, if that's what you want. And I'm sorry, I had to try. It's not every day I get to meet such a beautiful woman as you, in my line of work." He said. He was pretty smooth when it came to women.

The woman started blushing even more.

"No need to be shy love." Ghost said removing his mask. MacTavish couldn't see his face though.

"I'm Julia by the way. You really know what to say don't you? I'll have to go now, before they start wondering what I'm doing" she said smiling.

"Julia is a very beautiful name. Promise me we'll talk again." He said to her.

"I promise." She said kissing him on the cheek, before hurrying away.

"What was that about?" MacTavish said smiling and chuckling while he entered the room.

Ghost put his mask back on and replied, "Oh, that was nothing." He said chuckling lightly.

"Seems like you're a hit with the ladies eh? Just make sure you're healed up before you two start doing anything I don't want to know about." MacTavish said looking at suspiciously at Ghost.

"I don't think it'll come to that, not saying it wouldn't want to." He said laughing. MacTavish shook his head and sat down…

_He laughed at the memory of Ghost and Julia. He still wondered if it had ever gone any further than that. Ghost was pretty smooth, so it probably had no matter what anyone said._

* * *

**End of chapter 7. Yay :D. I hope you liked it. I just really wanted to write this all of the sudden. I just thought the entire scenario needed a little more explaining. Especially why MacTavish hasn't kicked out Ghost yet. To be honest the ending with Ghost and that Julia woman wasn't exactly planned, but hey, even Ghost need a little loving right :D?**

**I promise the next chapter will be the one I planned for originally. If anyone has more ideas for this series, it would be great; I'm kind of running dry. What I have in mind is: the thing with MacTavish, a crazy night with all the guys, and some bonding between Ghost and Roach. So any ideas would be great. So maybe it'll soon be the time I have been dreading. Ending this series :'( But I still have a couple of ideas.**

**So please do what you gotta do, review and all that jazz :) And thanks for reading along so far. I really appreciate it. It means a lot to me that people actually wants to read my stories 3**


	8. Chapter 8: Why?

**Just some quick information. When it comes to Operation Kingfish, in my story, it was only MacTavish, Price and Sandman who was there, and some of Sandman's men. Because now it wouldn't make sense if Ghost and Roach had been there, as the real story line says :)**

* * *

MacTavish went through the hallway of the base. He was coming from his office, looking for Ghost. He needed the men's times from the obstacle course for the reports he had to give Shepherd. He had to write full reports on how good they were at various tasks, and how they behaved as people around the base. That was going to be difficult when it came to Archer, Toad, Meat and Royce. And what was he going to say about Worm? Oh god…

He went into the mess hall where most of the guys were sitting. They seemed very secretive and for some reason MacTavish had a bad feeling about it.

"What's going on? I don't even know what you're doing but I'm still nervous." MacTavish said suspiciously.

"Oh it's nothing. Just a minor surprise for Ghost…" Roach said smiling and the others smiled with him.

"What are you planning? Don't prank him, he will kill you." MacTavish said.

As on cue Ghost walked in and all the guys got in line.

"Ghost and Julia sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G" all of them yelled and MacTavish was sure he would chase them all over the base, but he kept calm. Apparently the others were just as confused, they had got ready to run if they had to.

Now MacTavish noticed that Ghost seemed depressed. He had got a little happier the last couple of days, but now he was depressed again. There hadn't been anything this morning though. MacTavish signed to Ghost to follow him. They went to his office and sat down.

"Julia is being transferred" Ghost said silently. MacTavish sighed, poor guy, he had finally found someone who he actually enjoyed being around, and now she was leaving.

"Why? What's going on?" MacTavish asked. Ghost just kept looking into his captain's desk.

"She got a better job offer, closer to home." Ghost answered. MacTavish got up and patted the man on the back and told him he was sorry. He then sat back down, looked as his desk and sighed again.

Ghost looked up, with a little smile on his face; MacTavish hadn't even noticed he had taken off the mask, when he came into the office.

"I can feel that you really want me to ask; so what's going on with you?" Ghost said. MacTavish was about to protest, asking the man why he would ever think he would do that, but then he stopped himself. He did want to talk to Ghost. Maybe, just maybe he would be able to lift his spirits.

"I guess I'm just busy, I have to do these reports on the guys and I have absolutely no idea, what I'm going to say. They're all lunatics and I'm pretty sure that's not exactly what Shepherd wants to hear." MacTavish said.

Ghost nodded "I see, want some help with it? We'll figure something out." Ghost said, and MacTavish gladly took his help. He was just about to begin saying something, when Ghost took his laptop and put it away. "I'm not stupid mate. I know that look. Tell me what you're thinking about." Ghost said and sat down.

MacTavish looked at his lieutenant not sure what to say. He didn't think it showed as much as it did.

"Come on mate. You're not exactly good at hiding when you're feeling bad. At least not when you're around me. Tell Brother Ghost, I'll listen." Ghost said with a smile. _Brother Ghost,_ MacTavish had to let go a small chuckle at the thought of what Ghost had just said. But then his face went serious.

"I'm just having some sort of existential crisis. I'm starting to think about what the hell I was thinking when I agreed on doing this. I'm not used to being a leader, and I'm not sure if I'm completely comfortable with it. To be honest; I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm just following the protocol and improvising along the way!" MacTavish said.

Ghost didn't say anything; he just looked at his captain and made sure to pick up every word he said. MacTavish was sure he wasn't going to speak any time soon. Ghost was a pretty good listener, he was the kind of person, that just listened till you had no more to say, and then gave you his opinion. He wasn't someone to interrupt. He would just sit there and look at you.

"For a while I served under Captain John Price. He was a true leader, and to be honest, he was also kind of a father figure. At first I was pretty sure he hated me, because no matter what I was the FNG. No matter how well I did, even if I was milliseconds away from beating fastest on the team, I was just told he had seen better." MacTavish sighed.

"It was hard to satisfy that man, but he also ended up saving my life and the rest of the teams several times. And already here I fail. I have already had my arse saved by you" MacTavish said looking at Ghost, who just gave a slight smile as an answer.

"But after an operation called Kingfish everything went wrong and he was captured, and I was left alone. I feel like I have always had his guidance, and then he was just gone. I have no idea where he is now. I try to do what he taught me, but it's not going to well as you might be able to see. I can't even I'm not even sure if the others respect me as a captain. Or if they just see me as a friend."

Ghost had a very concentrated look on his face. He just stared at MacTavish waiting for him to continue his rant.

"With the way they act, I think they see me more as a friend. Bloody hell I can't even keep my own men in line. I basically see myself as a failure. I can't keep my men from acting like little kids, I had to have my arse saved by you, and no one even respects me around here. And now I'm complaining like a five year old to you, instead of actually doing something about my problems myself. What has my life become?" MacTavish said. The last part more to himself than to Ghost.

Ghost started moving "You done?" he asked and MacTavish was a little confused by his reaction. He just nodded, because he really felt like he had just said everything, which he needed to get off his chest. Ghost stood up walked over to his captain and smacked him on the back of the head and made sure he couldn't leave. MacTavish was about to yell at him, but Ghost made sure he knew he was going to do it again, if he didn't shut up.

"Either you are blind or the stupidest man on earth, possibly both. You are going on and on about how you are not you're previous captain. And do you want to know why you aren't him. Because you are TWO SEPARATE PEOPLE! You do not have to be like him. You are doing well enough on your own. Those men out there, trust me when I say this, they would follow you to the end of the world. They TRUST you. You have shown them that you're not an unemotional coldhearted bastard, but actually someone who they can come talk to. In that way you have earned their respect. You have also earned my respect and friendship, by showing me that I have someone who understands and who is willing to listen." Ghost yelled at his superior.

MacTavish was about to say something, but then felt Ghost smacking him again.

"You say they act like children. They only do that, because they know, that you want them to do whatever keeps them sane. And I saved your arse that day, because believe it or not, I cared enough to not let you die. I had a feeling that we could become great friends, if I let it happen. And from there my trust in you started growing. Tav listen to me, you're not a bloody failure! You might actually be one of the greatest captains I have ever seen. Now try and get that into that thick skull of yours!" Ghost said and finally released MacTavish.

He didn't know what to say. He had never seen Ghost like that before. He started thinking that maybe him and Ghost were getting closer than he thought. He had promised himself not to get too attached to anyone, but Ghost was an exception. He basically saw the man as his best friend, and he was not even sure if Ghost knew that or not.

"Ghost… thanks. You really helped me out. I understand what you said about me not being Price. It helped talking to you about it, and I guess I don't feel as sorry for myself anymore. You made me realize a couple of things. I don't have to be Price to make people trust me."

"Good. Nice to see that you got it. I don't want to hit you again." Ghost said with a little smile. MacTavish could see that this was one of his real smiles. Not one of the fake ones.

"I also need to tell you something, two things actually. First I want to say thank you for being such a good friend. I literally see you as my best friend." MacTavish said and awaited a reaction from Ghost.

"I see you as a best friend too. You're everything I've got." Ghost said smiling, and MacTavish could see that he meant it.

"And secondly, if you ever hit me again, I swear I will kick your arse!" MacTavish said.

"Yeah, like you'll ever be able to catch me." Ghost answered, and the two men laughed. They then decided that it might be a good idea if they started writing the reports, before it got late.

"Okay so who are we starting with?" MacTavish asked as he looked at the files in front of him.

Ghost gave MacTavish his computer back "Maybe just whoever is on top of the pile?" Ghost answered. They then picked up the first and opened it and read the name: Pete "Worm" Henderson. They looked at the name.

"NO!" They yelled in unison and quickly chose someone else.

* * *

**Okay so chapter 8 is done :) I really hope you liked it, I certainly enjoyed writing it. I kind of started liking the idea of them finally saying that they mean a lot to eachother (and no they're not gay ;)). So the next chapter will be about everyone being bored, and then they come up with some freaky stuff to pass time ;) **

**I also have a little announcement to make. I have finally decided that I will ****NOT**** end the story any time soon. I have so many ideas, but so far I have just not been able to find a way, to maybe incorporate them into this. But If I change up my description and things like that a little bit, there will be a lot more chapters coming up. So now this will also include more random moments in the TF as long as it fits my story line :)**

**Please review and tell me what you think :)**


	9. Chapter 9: Crazy Nights

There was a knock on the door and Ghost entered the room. MacTavish was sitting on his bed reading a book when Ghost came in. He looked like he was just as bored as himself.

"What's up mate?" MacTavish asked his lieutenant, eventhough he already knew the answer.

"I'm bored; I'm going to die if I don't do something soon. Usually the others figure something out, but apparently not today." He said and sat down on a chair.

"I know what you mean. They're being unusually quiet. Either they have something up their sleeve, or they are dying just as much as us." MacTavish answered and sighed. What were they going to do? Nothing was going on. Absolutely nothing. It was rare that it was so quiet. Ghost sighed as well and just leaned back on the chair.

*click* MacTavish looked at Ghost, but then returned to his book.

*click* *click* *click* MacTavish looked at Ghost again. What was he doing?

*click* *click* *click* *click* *click* "Alright, what are you doing?" MacTavish said to Ghost. He didn't know what he was doing, but it was annoying.

"What do you mean?" Ghost answered innocently. He knew MacTavish was getting annoyed. And that was probably also his goal.

"That clicking noise. It's driving me insane!" MacTavish said as he looked at Ghost. However he couldn't really see anything but innocence on Ghost's face. However, he was a pretty good liar, so he knew not to trust him. Nonetheless he decided to return to his book. All of the sudden he could feel Ghost moving closer to him. What was the man doing?

All of the sudden he could hear a loud CLICK in his ear and Ghost bolted out of the room. MacTavish threw his book onto the bed and decided to chase Ghost. _Maybe it wasn't going to be so boring after all_ MacTavish thought to himself.

Ghost had run into the mess hall where most of the guys were sitting, and MacTavish was just behind him. MacTavish knew he wouldn't be able to catch Ghost like this. He was way too fast. He might not be faster than him on the obstacle course, but if Ghost decided not to let anyone catch him, you couldn't. MacTavish also had a feeling Ghost might not have been the fastest on the obstacle course, because he didn't feel like it.

Everyone in the mess hall was staring at Ghost and MacTavish as they started running around the table they were all sitting at. Apparently they found it fun.

"Ghost come back here you bastard!" MacTavish yelled, while chasing after Ghost.

"You can't catch me Tav? Are you too slow, eh?" He yelled back mockingly. MacTavish knew his strategy. He was trying to make him keep running around the table until he felt dizzy, and well, you could say it was working.

MacTavish had to stop. He put his hand on the table, trying to make the dizziness stop. He glanced over at Ghost to see he wasn't doing very well either. When Ghost wanted to be, he could be more annoying than the Roach, and that says a lot.

"What's wrong Tav? Had enough?" Ghost said as he stretched his back. He tried walking over to MacTavish but apparently he was dizzy as well and nearly fell.

"You bloody bastard!" MacTavish yelled as he almost fell to the ground as well.

It was first now MacTavish noticed that the others had kept quiet so far. He looked up at them, to see the surprised and amused look on their faces. MacTavish had a feeling; it might not have been the whole chasing eachother around thing. It was probably because Ghost looked like he was **actually** having fun.

"What are you two doing?" Worm finally asked.

"Ghost is a bastard!" MacTavish answered. Worm didn't look amused.

"Well, I got that much from your yelling…" Worm answered. The others looked surprised at Worm. Usually he wasn't one for talking, and when he finally did, he would NEVER talk back to a superior.

"What's wrong Worm! You seem a little uhm… mad?" Ghost tried carefully, neither he nor MacTavish would want to see him in a bad mood, after the incident involving a sleeping bag, the floor and a screaming Worm.

"I'm not mad I'm just bored. We should all do something." He said and everyone nodded. Meat volunteered to get the rest of the team gathered. Or at least the ones who wanted to join.

_10 minutes later…_

"What are we going to do?" Roach asked looking around. Of course he had sat right next to Ghost, and Ghost found it uncomfortable. He wasn't exactly interested in Roach.

"ROACH! Go away; you're giving me the creeps!" Ghost yelled at Roach who instantly looked like a sad puppy. Everyone just stared at Ghost to see when he would break.

"I'm sorry Ghost, I… I didn't mean to annoy you man… I just…" Roach began, and Ghost started to feel bad. You could see it on the way he was sitting. He started looking uncomfortable.

"Roach… I'm sorry I didn't mean it that way…" Ghost said and Roach instantly lightened up and Ghost started looking more natural again.

"What about we play… gay chicken!" Scarecrow said and you could hear small oh-no's around the table. But somehow it ended up being what they were going to do. For some reason MacTavish was terrified. _This can't end well_ he thought to himself.

They ended up putting notes with all their names into a pot and they would draw two names out.

"Okay the first two up is… Roach and Toad" said scarecrow, and the two men looked at eachother. They sat down next to eachother and looked eachother in the eye. _Here we go _MacTavish thought.

Roach started getting closer to Toad, who clearly didn't like the situation. He wasn't going to last long. MacTavish could see their lips meet, and all the men started taking bets, most of them said that Roach would win, and MacTavish was pretty sure about that as well.

Everyone watched as Roach moved closer and closer to Toad, waiting for him to break. Roach started putting more into the kiss, doing everything he could to make Toad pull away. Then the unexpected happened. Toad started pulling Roach closer and started to part the sergeant's lips. Toad clearly didn't enjoy the situation, but he looked like he wanted to win.

Roach got very surprised as Toad started to put his hands underneath his T-shirt. So surprised he ended up pulling away, leaving Toad with the victory.

"YES! GAY CHICKEN CHAMPION!" Toad yelled out laughing, he quickly decided to wipe Roache's saliva off his lips as well.

"Congrats Toad, and I guess you won the money Ghost." Scarecrow said as Ghost took all the money on the table. Apparently he was the only one who bet on Toad and now MacTavish understood why. You should always bet on the one no one believed to win, because usually they surprise you.

"Okay the next two is… Angel and Ghost…" Scarecrow announced. Angel was one of the guys, who you never really noticed. He never got in trouble, and he was definitely also one of the most normal. And besides that, he was a great soldier, quiet but great. However, now he looked scared. And MacTavish actually feared for his life eventhough he was also a little excited.

Everyone looked to Ghost to see his reaction, it was hard to see because of the balaclava, but he didn't seem happy. There was no way he was going to do it. Everyone just sat in silence for a while and waited for someone to speak. But on the other hand, everyone had sworn at the beginning, that no one was excused, no matter rank.

"I… uh… Please don't kill me sir…" Angel said as he walked over to Ghost, he didn't really have a choice, as everyone looked anxiously at him. Ghost had not reacted yet. He just sat there, probably trying to figure out a way, to avoid a rather awkward situation.

"This is not going to happen. No bloody way. I won't put Angel through the beating I would have to give him afterwards, to get my manliness back." Ghost finally said.

"I think that's a great excuse!" Angel said immediately. Everyone had to agree, eventhough it would have been funny to see.

_30 minutes later…_

As they finally decided it would be a good idea to stop Gay Chicken everyone became silent.

"What are we going to do know?" Archer said. MacTavish had an idea; he had a secret stash of alcohol at the base. He was sure it was going to end terribly, but it was probably going to be fun.

"Ghost follow me, we'll be back in a minute." MacTavish said and everyone looked confused.

_5 minutes later…_

MacTavish and Ghost came back with beer, whiskey, gin and vodka, and they had juice and soda in the fridge to mix in.

Everyone stared at their superiors, they were very surprised. "What do you guys say to a drinking game, eh?" MacTavish asked and everyone cheered.

"What do you guys say to 7, 11, double? We need one 16 oz. cup, and two dices. They dice goes on turn. If someone rolls a 7, 11 or double they get to choose someone to drink. The drinker will have to start chugging, whatever kind of alcohol there is in the cup, and the roller, will only be able to roll, when the drinker touches the cup. The rollers job is to try and get a 7, 11 or double before the drinker has finished his drink. If the roller doesn't make it, he will have to chug down a cup himself. Got it?"

Everyone seemed satisfied with the idea, but MacTavish knew this was going to end in chaos. But hey, they had to have fun once in a while.

_1 hour later…_

MacTavish wobbled his way his way outside, because he heard yelling and screaming. Apparently Scarecrow, Ozone, Archer and Toad, were running around like maniacs, laughing like 5 year olds. Inside it wasn't better. Roach, Angel, Pharaoh and Worm had decided it was time to do drunken karaoke. And of course Meat and Royce were fighting on the floor. But not one of their usual fights. Meat had apparently thought it was a good idea to try and make-out with Royce, but Royce kept insisting he wasn't that kind of girl.

MacTavish decided to go look for Ghost. The drinking game had got out of hand pretty quickly. It didn't take long for everyone to make stronger drinks, and then hell broke loose.

"GHOST! GHOSTIE, GOATIE, GHOST!" MacTavish yelled down the hallway. He stopped outside the man's bedroom, because he heard someone crying. He opened the door and found Ghost staring out a window, giving out loud cries once in a while.

"Are you okay mate?" MacTavish asked rather concerned. Eventhough he was pretty drunk, he seemed to be the sanest person here.

"They just die mate, bloody hell, they just die." Ghost cried as he grabbed MacTavish's pant leg.

"What dies?" MacTavish asked concerned.

"The leafs, they just fall of the trees and die! It's leaf murder, all the other leafs will be sad now. OH BLOODY HELL, THERE GOES ANOTHER ONE!" Ghost cried even louder.

MacTavish looked at the drink in his hand; this was going to be a long night.

* * *

**Chapter 9 is finished, yay :) Okay, I know I haven't published in a while, so you're welcome to bring out the pitchforks and torches. I've just been completely overrun by papers for school :( But hey it's summer vacation soon, and then there will probably be more stuff going up. I can tell you that I am also working on another story on the side. That doesn't mean I'm stopping this. It's just going to be another story. So if you like GhostxSoap stories, then keep an eye out, it's going to be called Unexpected Relations.**

**But the next chapter of this will be their first mission as a team :) It'll be split into three; to make sure it won't just be one very long chapter.**

**But as always please review and tell me what you think. Your reviews always make me smile :)**


	10. Chapter 10: Lets go to Portugal

MacTavish got off the phone and decided to find Ghost. He had just talked to Shepherd and he had told him they had their first mission, as a team. MacTavish always notified Ghost first, when something new came up. He didn't know why, because it wasn't something that was in the protocol, he just happened to like to see Ghost's reaction first.

MacTavish walked to the man's room and knocked on the door. He could hear slight thumping from the other side of the door. Ghost had a thing about throwing a tennis ball up his wall or door, if he couldn't sleep. It went quiet for a while, and then MacTavish heard a loud sigh. He could hear Ghost moving and he opened the door.

"Hey mate. You okay?" MacTavish asked as he looked at Ghost. He looked awful, like he hadn't slept in days.

"Yeah I'm fine. What's going on?" Ghost said as he looked at his captain. MacTavish knew he was going to like this. Ghost had a chance to bust out the cables and he had told MacTavish, that eventhough it was sick, he found it quite enjoyable. It was one of the things which stopped the trembling of his hands. MacTavish had never had the chance to see Ghost's skills in torture, but he might get to now.

"Shepherd just called and we're going on a mission. It's in Portugal." MacTavish said and he was sure he could see Ghost smile through his mask.

"What kind of mission?" He asked and waited impatiently for his captain to answer.

"We have to infiltrate and take down a main weaponry supplier of the Russians. It will take the utmost care, because we might need to get someone on the inside. Plus we might need to… interrogate… some people to get information…" MacTavish answered as he awaited Ghost's reaction.

"Sounds a bit difficult. How the bloody hell, will we get someone on the inside. Well I speak fluent Russian and Portuguese, but I don't think they'll buy it. But about the interrogation… do you think they'll give it up willingly, or will they need a little push?" Ghost said.

"Let's just say, that you'll need your skills in interrogation." MacTavish answered and he could see Ghost smiling. Torture wasn't exactly MacTavishes thing; he had never been able to do it himself, but he was confident Ghost knew what he had to do. It was one of the many things he was an expert in, also considering, him having been put through it himself.

Ghost threw the tennis ball, back into his room, and followed MacTavish to his office.

MacTavish sat down and went to a microphone to send out a message to everyone on the base.

"Be in the briefing room in 10 minutes. We have a mission." MacTavish called out. He and Ghost went to the briefing room and waited for the rest.

_10 minutes later…_

Everyone was in the briefing room now and they all looked excited. Not that he blamed them though. They had been without a mission ever since Ghost and MacTavish had been sent out on their own.

"Okay, quiet everyone." MacTavish started and the noise in the room died down.

"We have a mission in Portugal. We are supposed to infiltrate a main weapons supplier of the Russians and take him out. But we need someone on the inside to get inside information. This person will need to find out about certain people, where they are and where they are going to be, so we'll have the opportunity to catch and question them. It's not as easy as easy as it sounds. They have a lot of security, and their base is basically a minor fortress. They keep track of everyone, so as soon as we start questioning people, we will have to move fast." MacTavish said.

"When are we leaving?" Meat asked, "Tomorrow at 6 am. Everything is already sorted out; we have weaponry, transportation and a place to stay. We have allies who own a hotel, and they will do what they can to make us look, as little suspicious as possible." MacTavish answered.

"Um sir… Who will have to be the inside man?" Toad asked.

"To be honest, I have no idea. Does anyone speak Russian or Portuguese?" MacTavish asked.

Everyone went quiet and looked around the room, when they heard someone they didn't expect speak.

"Well, I speak fluent Portuguese…" Roach said, and everyone looked at him. _Well I didn't expect that…_ MacTavish thought to himself.

"Hmm… have any idea about a cover story?" MacTavish asked. Roach looked like he was thinking hard. It had been a while since MacTavish had seen him this serious.

"I was born here in Britain by British parents, but when I was about 10 we had to move to Lisbon, because of a job offer my father got. As a quick learner, I found it easy to learn Portuguese and quickly became fluent. As I grew up, I only went back to Britain, occasionally on holidays. As time has passed, I have slowly begun to feel more and more Portuguese, and I have put some of my British ways behind me." Roach said and looked at MacTavish.

"I have to admit, that was pretty good. If you're up for it, you got the job." MacTavish said and Roach nodded and said someone had to do it. MacTavish had a feeling the kid knew this was serious, and that they may, for the first time see a Roach who didn't act like he was 12.

"Any more questions?" MacTavish asked and everyone shook their head. They still seemed excited though, and to be honest, MacTavish also felt a little excited about the fact, that it would be their first mission as a team.

_Later that day…_

MacTavish looked at his clock and saw it was 10 PM. Eventhough it wasn't that late, he considered going to bed, because they all had to get up early. That thought was destroyed as someone knocked on his bedroom door.

"Come in." He said and watched as his best friend entered. Ghost took of his mask and sunglasses, and sat down on a chair with a worried look.

"A penny for your thoughts?" MacTavish said as he looked at his friend.

"Do you think he'll be okay? Roach I mean. Do you think he'll be able to do it?" Ghost asked looking more and more concerned.

"Aye, why wouldn't he." MacTavish answered.

"I just have a bad feeling about it. Roach isn't that old and he always runs around like a 12 year old. Maybe he'll get nervous and screw up the entire mission." Ghost said.

MacTavish tried to contain a laugh, oh this was rich.

"You sure it's the mission you're worried about?" MacTavish said while giggling.

"Yeah, of course. What else would it be? And why the bloody hell are you laughing?" Ghost said getting a little mad because of MacTavishe's laughter.

"You're just adorable. You won't admit you're more worried about Roach than the mission." MacTavish said, still giggling.

"Why would I be worried about the bug? I'm just worried about whether or not he'll be able to do it. I don't want him compromising us." Ghost said annoyed.

"Ghost look at yourself. You're going soft because of Roach. You care about him more than you're willing to admit."

"I don't bloody care about the bug, okay! I'm not going soft!" Ghost yelled.

"You're just a big softy aren't ya? You're always looking out for him, making sure he's okay, you baby him. Just admit you care about him, mate. It's not that hard. Bloody hell, the kid looks up to you, and you like it. You're probably like and older brother to him, and you just push him away." MacTavish said.

"I'm not going soft and I'm not babying him. He's just too stupid to look after himself, so someone else had to do it, and it ended up being me. And why would he look up to me? Even if he did, why would I like it? He's annoying as hell." Ghost said still mad.

"Oh… denial!" MacTavish chuckled. "Oh by the way, did you know Meat and Royce pulled a prank on Roach a couple of days ago, where Roach was nowhere to be seen most of the day?" MacTavish asked with a smirk.

"No. What happened? You found him?" Ghost asked not really caring.

"They kidnapped him, and put him in a small dark room. He had been sitting in there for 6 hours when I finally found him. Apparently he has claustrophobia." MacTavish said smirking.

"THOSE BASTARDS! I'LL KICK THEIR ARSE WHEN I SEE THEM!" Ghost yelled as he stormed out of the room.

_So much for not caring_ MacTavish thought as he began to laugh.

_The next day…_

Everyone got on the bus, which was their transportation. This was going to be a long ride. It would take around 34 hours to get to Portugal, so MacTavish had reminded everyone to bring something to entertain themselves.

Everyone sat down and started talking with whoever they had sat next to. MacTavish did a quick check, to see if everyone was there and then went over to Ghost and sat down. Ghost was still mad at MacTavish for what he had said about him getting soft.

"So what did you do to Meat and Royce? They look like they're in pain or something." MacTavish said as he chuckled.

"Nothing…" Ghost said as he pushed himself further into the seat, as if he was trying to get comfortable. MacTavish knew he was lying. There was no way he didn't do anything to them, with the way he had stormed out of the room.

"What did you do Ghost? Tell me, it's an order." MacTavish said. He knew Ghost hated when he used his advantages as a captain against him.

"I woke them up at 3 AM, and made them do 100 pushups after running 5 laps each." Ghost answered. MacTavish found it funny for some reason, but he also thought it was mean.

"You're a cruel, cruel man, Simon Riley." MacTavish said as he could hear Ghost chuckle. "Eventhough you're really just a big softy." This time Ghost didn't laugh, he just sighed deeply and looked at the scenery outside.

_Half way through the trip…_

MacTavish looked behind him to see what everyone was doing. Most of them were awake since they had basically gone into a coma as soon as the bus started moving, and they had just woken up. MacTavish found it impressive how they could sleep 17 hours straight.

All of the sudden MacTavish could hear music from the back of the bus. It was Meat who had started some of his rap music, which he knew Ghost hated. The rest of the men on the other hand didn't really care, they either listened to it themselves, or didn't bother saying anything because it was nice to listen to something else than the engine of the bus.

"Hey, why don't we play truth or dare or something?" Roach asked and everyone seemed to think it was a good idea.

"Hey Captain, Ghost, want to join?" Ozone asked, but MacTavish already knew Ghost's answer, so he just shook his head, answering for the both of them.

MacTavish could hear them whispering, as to make sure neither, Ghost nor MacTavish himself, would be able to hear what was going on. All of the sudden Roach stood up and walked behind the seat Ghost was in. He started poking him.

"Sir. Sir. Sir. Sir. Sir." Roach said as he continuously poked Ghost. Ghost didn't react to any of it.

"Sir. Sir. Sir. Sir. Sir." Still no reaction from Ghost.

"Ghost. Ghost. Ghost. Ghost. Ghost." Ghost started moving in his seat, and MacTavish was impressed about how long he at lasted without throwing Roach out of the moving bus.

"Ghost. Ghost. Come on you sexy beast."

"What?!" Ghost finally yelled, and everyone laughed at the fact he responded to sexy beast.

"BOOP!" Roach yelled as he touched Ghost nose and ran for the back of the bus and sought protection. Ghost turned around in his seat to look at Roach. If looks could kill, he would've been dead a million times by now. But then MacTavish could see Toad whispering to Roach, and Roach instantly looked at Ghost with a sad puppy face. It didn't take long for Ghost to soften up, and just letting it go.

"And you said you weren't going soft." MacTavish said and Ghost just responded with mumbling, which MacTavish couldn't hear.

_At the hotel…_

Everyone was split into rooms. They ended up dividing 12 of them into rooms of 3, just so MacTavish would get the joy of hearing them yell at eachother, about who was sleeping where. And then a room with 4 which contained Scarecrow, Ozone, Archer and Toad, and then Ghost and MacTavish shared a room.

"So you're sleeping on the couch, right mate?" MacTavish said as he looked at Ghost with a smile.

"We both know that's not going to happen. I'm still mad at you, so I think you should sleep on the couch." Ghost hissed.

"You're so cute when you're angry. But I know how you girls get just a little touchy once a month, so I won't take it that bad." MacTavish said chuckling.

"Piss off." Ghost answered. "Oh come on love, we'll just share the bed then, eh." MacTavish asked laughing.

"Okay but if you as much as touch me, you're dead." Ghost said seriously.

"Don't worry love. I would never force you to do something you don't want to." MacTavish said jokingly and Ghost started to play along.

"Thanks darlin', what would I do without you? I think I'd be lost." Ghost said smiling as he and MacTavish started to unpack their things.

* * *

**Chapter 10 :) So this is the start of their first mission. As said in the last chapter, this will be split into three, maybe four, if it gets longer than I anticipated. I thought it was probably time for them to go on a mission :)**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) I don't know when the next one will be up, because I have some exams to prepare for. But I'll try and make sure it won't be too long. Also the first chapter of Unexpected Relations should go up within this week :D**

**As always please review as it's always nice to see what you think. And of course it always makes me smile, to know that someone actually reads my things :3**

**See you soon XzShadoWzX out :D**


	11. Chapter 11: Change of Plans

**Song used in story: Tool - Lateralus**

**The song is owned by Tool and therefore all the credit goes to Tool as well. I'm just borrowing it :)**

**When there is dialog written in cursive, it's because I don't speak a single word of Portuguese, and it's supposed to be like a translation.**

**Sorry about the length on this one.**

* * *

MacTavish got a rude awakening as he felt someone slap him and push him out of the bed. He quickly stood up to look at Ghost who was lying there laughing. MacTavish then looked at his watch; it was 4 in the morning.

"What the bloody hell was that for?!" MacTavish yelled as he picked up his pillow from the floor. He had dragged it with him as he was pushed out.

"I told you not to touch me, but apparently you didn't care. So I had to show you, that I was serious, the hard way." Ghost said chuckling. MacTavish stood there with a clueless look on his face. _What the fuck did I do?_ He thought to himself as he continued to look at Ghost, waiting for him to continue.

"You tried to spoon me mate, and frankly, that's not cool. I don't roll that way. But if you do, it's fine, I'm not judging you or anything." Ghost said giggling as he turned around to go back to sleep. MacTavish didn't really know what to say, so he just climbed back in bed. He then started moving closer to his lieutenant.

"'Tav. What are you doing?" Ghost asked as MacTavish got closer and closer.

"You sure you don't want to spoon love?" MacTavish laughed and he knew Ghost was getting annoyed. As moved closer again he felt a hard punch in his stomach. He rolled on to his back, trying to get his breath back.

"NO! Bad MacTavish! Bad dog!" Ghost yelled as he once again turned around to get some sleep.

"Woof." MacTavish replied and he could he Ghost laughing quietly.

_Later that day…_

Everyone was gathered in the hotel's basement and MacTavish was waiting for the men to get quiet. They needed to get started as soon as possible. The noise started dying down and MacTavish was finally able to speak.

"Okay. The mission begins today. We will have to track down a man named Antonio Fernandez. We need to find out where he is. He is one of the weapon suppliers. If we can get you to speak with him Roach, and if you can "befriend" him, you're in, in no time." Roach nodded.

"Ghost, Worm, Archer, Toad, Angel and Pharaoh, you'll start to take a look at how their base is built. I need you to know everything of value. The easiest way in and out, emergency escapes, absolutely everything."

"Of course. Come on, let's go." Ghost said to his team and they left so they could get started.

"Chemo, Robot, Rocket, Meat and Royce, you'll get started on security. We need to know how their security is, before we send Roach in there. If we know beforehand, it'll get easier, so we know how careful Roach needs to be."

"Aye Aye Captain." Meat said and they got started.

"Neon, Pieces, Scarecrow and Ozone, I want you to start tracking down Antonio Fernandez."

"Yes sir." They said and quickly got to it.

"What about us two, sir?" Roach asked confused. "You're with me lad. We'll need to get you're cover in place to make sure you have backup stories for your backup stories. If we don't get your cover in place, we'll easily get compromised." MacTavish said and made Roach follow him.

They entered a small pathetic room; they had decided to call an office. MacTavish and Roach sat down and Roach started moving around uncomfortably in his chair.

"Having second thoughts?" MacTavish asked and Roach immediately stopped moving.

"No, not at all. It's just very weird, that the mission is basically depending on my success. I don't even know how I'm going to do it. How will I even befriend the guy?" Roach said concerned.

"We'll figure it out mate, don't worry." MacTavish said with a smile. He and Roach started discussing what he should use as cover stories.

_That evening…_

MacTavish and Roach had got everything in place. They went back to where everyone else was so they could start a briefing. They needed to get started as soon as possible. As they entered, MacTavish could hear music:

"I'm reaching for the random or whatever will bewilder me.  
And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been.  
We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been.

Spiral out. Keep going..."

MacTavish could hear the music was coming from Ghost's computer. He didn't know he liked Tool. Just another little thing they had in common, he thought.

"Nice music choice Ghost." MacTavish said smiling and Ghost gave a little smile back.

"Let's see what everyone has figured out." MacTavish said and Ghost stopped the music and everyone gathered around the long table. Ghost team stood up and went to the end of the table to tell everyone what they had found out. As the team had gathered, Ghost started speaking.

"Well as we already know, it's a minor fortress. And there are four entrances. One is the front door, but that would be stupid. Then there is through a weak wall. We could bust through it, but it leads directly in to a bigger area. Then there's from the air, but that would require us landing in the middle of a courtyard, and that would be even more retarded than the front door. But, there is also the sewer. About 1 mile from their base, there is an entrance to the sewer, which leads directly into the base. As far as I'm concerned because of the blueprints, it leads to a very secluded area. But we can't be sure until Roach has checked it out." Now Angel took over.

"When it comes to getting out again, well, the easiest way is in this case the front door. As soon as we're in, it'll be easy to get out again that way. Of course it's a little risky, if we have tangos, all over us, but there really is no other option." The team went back and sat down.

Chemo's team stood up and got ready.

"Well, as far as we are concerned after doing a little bit of hacking, then we know they have their fair amount of guards. Most of them are equipped with AK-47's, M9's and flashbangs. They also have a few sentry guns, but they're of shit quality, so that shouldn't be much of a problem." Meat said, and Chemo took over.

"They also have security cameras in the most important areas. But, we can get around them. Their power supply is outside the base and if we can cut the wires, we could have anywhere between 5 - 10 minutes, with no cameras and no light, before the emergency generator kicks in. This will allow us to sneak around and do our thing without getting noticed. And no they probably won't suspect a thing, since that place is unlucky when it comes to power. They have problems with it all the time, and therefore they won't suspect anything, until they come out to check and see the wires cut." Chemo said, and MacTavish nodded.

So far this didn't sound too bad. Most of it seemed to be manageable.

Neon's team stepped up and Scarecrow just stood there as his eyes were glued to the computer screen. He looked amazed.

"What's wrong Scarecrow?" MacTavish asked, and everyone stared at the frozen man.

"We have him… I have him right here!" The man let out a laugh No one really knew what he meant, but the rest of their team, seemed just as happy as Scarecrow.

"What's going on?" MacTavish asked a little concerned for the sanity of his men.

"I'm sorry sir, but we didn't think this would happen. Antonio just made the stupid mistake of turning on his own cellphone. We're pretty sure he's been using disposable cellphones, until now. We have everything on him." Scarecrow said happily.

"Seems like we should give him a call." Ghost said and MacTavish agreed.

_30 minutes later…_

The entire room was staring at Roach as they waited for Antonio to pick up. They had just planned everything, he had to say. They waited and waited until the phone was finally answered.

"_Hello, this is Antonio." _

"_Hello, this is Michael Norwich, I know what you're doing and I want in."_

"_Excuse me? I have no idea who you are Mr. Norwich."_

"_I know what you're doing. You work as a weapons supplier for the Russians, and I want in. I'll do anything that supports the Russians. Those American bastards are a reason, why some of my family members are dead."_

"_How do you know about this? Tell me!"_

"_I've been going to certain bars, where I know you can freely speak your mind, and I was told that maybe you could help me. I want to set up a meeting. I want in."_

"_I guess we could figure out a meeting. You sound passionate about this, you might actually be useful. Can you meet me today?"_

"_Just say when and where and I'll be there."_

"_Tonight at 11:30 PM. Do you know the hotel right at the big market, in the outskirts of Lisbon? Stand at the wall that leads to the alley and I'll meet you."_

"_Of course. See you soon."_

Roach hung up and looked around. He then told them everything they had just said, as it was only Roach and Ghost who spoke fluent Portuguese.

"I should probably get ready. It's in an hour and a half." He said. MacTavish nodded.

"We should get the microphone on you, and make sure everything is alright."

MacTavish sent Ozone to get all the equipment they needed to get on roach. He came back with a microphone and a tiny GPS in a syringe, so they would be able to track him, if things went south.

"I need to ask you to strip mate. We need to put the microphone and GPS somewhere." Ghost said and Roach started taking of his shirt. MacTavish thought about where they should put the microphone. The chest would be too easy to spot, so he took Roach's shirt and started opening its collar.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Roach yelled. MacTavish and Ghost rolled their eyes. "We can't put it on your chest, that would be to visible." Ghost explained and Roach looked like he understood.

"What about the GPS? Where are you putting that? Going to ruin more of my clothes huh?!" Roach said.

"Someone's getting pissy." Ghost said laughing. Roach just shook his head.

"Give me your arm; we'll have to get this in you." Angel said smiling. He was the only one around who would be able to put in the little GPS without hurting Roach. Roach stuck out his arm and Angel put it in.

"OOOOW! That hurt! Will it stay there forever?" Roach said rubbing his arm. "Pull yourself together you baby! No we can make it dissolve, so it won't be able to be tracked by anyone else." Angel said strictly as he looked at Roach.

MacTavish gave Roach his shirt back. He had put in the mic, and sewed up the shirt again. It seemed like he was ready to go.

_Later that day…_

"Waiting by the hotel." They could hear Roach say on the other line. They were all a little nervous, what if Antonio didn't take the bait. They all stood in an uncomfortable silence until they heard a man speak. It was Antonio. Ghost began translating.

"_Hello, you must be Mr. Norwich."_

"_Yes, where can we go and talk?"_

"_Follow me; we have contacts in the hotel. They have set up a room for us so we can talk in peace."_

"_Good. I'm looking forward to it."_

It seemed like forever when they could finally hear them enter the room.

"_Take of your shirt. I need to make sure you aren't bait."_

_Damnit_ MacTavish thought. Everyone was holding their breath and waited for Fernandez' verdict.

"_Seems like you're clean. Ok, now we can talk. Sit."_

"_So about me joining you."_

"_Don't think you can just join in like that. I don't know if I trust you."_

"_You have no idea how much I want to be in this. The Americans are the reason I have lost most of my family. I need to do something. Joining the army won't be enough. I need to do something, which I now will hurt them in the long run."_

"_For some reason, I really like you. You have the perfect way of thinking. But explain to me why the army won't be enough for you. If you answer correctly, you're in. If not. You're dead. Understand?"_

"_I understand. If I join the army, I'll be sent somewhere, and there is the chance, that I'll die before I get to do any type of damage. But if I join you, I'll be able to supply the Russians with weaponry. And if I do that, I know what I have done will cost several lives."_

"_That Mr. Norwich… is the correct answer. I really do like you. I think a warped mind like yours would fit in perfectly with us. I think you should go pack and meet me here again in an hour, and we'll be off."_

"_Thank you. You won't be disappointed."_

"_I hope I won't."_

_Soon after…_

MacTavish watched as Roach came into the room. Angel and worm, Roache's roommates had put all his stuff in his bag, and gave it to him. For some reason Roach didn't even look nervous, he just looked focused.

"You ready to do this?" MacTavish asked and Roach nodded. He was saying bye to the rest of the guys and having to hear good luck, after good luck. As he was about to leave the room Ghost spoke.

"Take care of yourself bug. Don't do anything stupid." Ghost said.

""Don't worry I won't." Roach said with a smile as he left the room.

Everyone looked at Ghost and Meat spoke up.

"Are you going soft sir?" He said laughing. Ghost didn't take it well and Meat had to do 50 pushups as a punishment.

_Later that night…_

Half of the guys were asleep and the other half was awake. They were taking shifts, so they could hear what was going on. So far Roach had been introduced to some of the men. Including their main target Dimas Reposa and some other men Ghost would probably get his hands on.

They had told him he was free to walk around the entire base, to make sure he knew where everything important was. Of course he did that, to make sure they had everything mapped out. That also ended up determining how they would enter. The small room with the sewer was perfect. It was in the far end of the base, people rarely came there.

They decided it was time for bed, and made sure that Roach would contact them if anything happened.

_A couple of days later…_

In the last couple of days, there hadn't happened much. Roach had slowly started making "friends" and everyone seemed to start and trust him. He was allowed to do more and even Dimas Reposa had admitted to liking him.

He had got a lot of information, just by being there a few days. And Shepherd was more than pleased. But there was also a change of plans. Reposa's right hand men were not to be killed anymore. Shepherd wanted them alive.

Roach was playing his role well, but they had to move fast now. Ghost had a poor bastard strapped to a chair, and MacTavish knew Reposa would start searching for him within a couple of days.

He turned his attention to Ghost. He noticed that his hands had stopped trembling.

"Do you speak English?" Ghost asked the man and the man quickly answered yes.

"Good. That makes it easier for us, now doesn't it? So what do you say to start talking, or do I have to force it out of you?"

"I'll never betray them!" The man yelled.

Ghost sighed loudly; MacTavish knew he was enjoying this. He didn't like to think of his friend like this, but it was the only way.

"Such a shame." Ghost said as he walked over to the combat knife on the table and brought it over to the man. He then crouched beside him and brought it to his leg.

"You know how badly I could mess your leg up with this?" Ghost asked the man and his eyes went big.

"What are you doing? That still won't make me talk." The man said.

Ghost raised it to the man's face and cut him down the cheek. The man whimpered in pain and MacTavish didn't like seeing it. Ghost on the other hand laughed.

"On the bright side, you'll get a pretty cool scar." Ghost said as he saw the blood running down the man's face. MacTavish could see that Ghost knew that wouldn't be enough to make him talk. So he went over to the car battery and brought over the cables.

"What do you say to speaking?" Ghost said calmly, but it was a scary calm. The man answered by spitting after Ghost.

"Now that's not very nice." Ghost said as the man started screaming.

_That evening…_

They had got everything out of the man. They didn't even need to interrogate anyone else. After Ghost had busted out the cables the man quickly started talking. And there was nothing he wasn't willing to say. Eventhough it was against protocol, they had to end him. They couldn't have him running back. This was the dark side of the 141 MacTavish thought, when he heard something from Roache's end. It was Antonio.

He called everyone to gather, since everyone was up.

"_I need to speak to you Michael. Follow me."_

They could hear Roach getting up and following him. MacTavish had a bad feeling about this, and when he had bad feelings about something, that usually mean things were going to go to hell.

They could hear a door close and everything went quiet for a while.

"_What did you want to talk to me about?"_

"_It's about you."_

"_What have I done?"_

"_What haven't you done?"_

"_I would answer you if I knew what you meant."_

"_Oh you know what I mean. I knew this was a mistake."_

"_What are you talking about?"_

"_One of our most trusted men hasn't been seen since this morning. It's not like him to just disappear. You wouldn't happen to know anything would you?"_

"_No. Of course not. Why would I?"_

"_Because you're not who you've been saying you are."_

"_That doesn't even make sense."_

"_I knew as soon as I had brought you in the base. You started taking notes on everything, you asked unusual questions. Everything about you was strange."_

"_Antonio, man. Come on. I don't know what you're talking about."_

"_Oh really." _They heard Antonio punch Roach and they could hear Roach moan in pain. Everyone went quiet. They all still hoped Roach would be able to save the situation. But at the same time, they knew they were compromised.

"_So are you going to tell me who you really are, or do I have to force it out of you?"_

"_I have no idea of what you're talking about man! Come on!"_

"_Don't play stupid. You see this knife? It can do terrible things to that pretty face of yours."_

"_Please Antonio I hav-"_

"_DON'T PLAY STUPID! If you aren't going to talk then maybe I should do something worse than harming your pretty little face."_

MacTavish and the rest of the team couldn't do anything, as they heard Roach getting stabbed…

* * *

**Chapter 11 :D oooh cliffhanger! Don't worry; the next chapter will go up soon. I know what I'll write; I just have to type it in :)**

**Yeah I chose to use a song in this one, and if you guys don't know Tool, I think you should check them out. I'm usually careful about saying these things, but Tool is definitely one of the best bands in the world. They are one of the few bands in the world who actually has some sort of intellect left (I'm going to get my ass kicked for this, aren't I? Bring out the pitchforks and torches! -.-'). They are definitely worth listening too, especially if you like rock. I strongly recommend listening to 'The Pot', that's what made me love them :) **

**By the way, Unexpected Relations is up, so go check it out if you want. And I have also started a new "series" called One Shots of the 141, where all the random things I have no idea what else to do with, will go.**

**As always you're welcome to review and tell me what you think :)**


	12. Chapter 12: Saving a Bug

No one said a word; the team had never been this quiet before. Usually MacTavish would have enjoyed the silence, but this was the worst silence he had heard in a long time. Ghost started moving, he was the first one to say something.

"I'm going to bloody kill him!" Ghost yelled and everyone looked at him.

"I'm sorry mate, and order is an order. We can't kill him." MacTavish said and he noticed Ghost tensing up even more. Before he knew it Ghost was close enough for their noses to touch.

"Well, if I can't kill him, I'm going to beat him senseless. I'll make him wish he was never born." He said and walked away. MacTavish didn't know what to say to Ghost. To be honest, he didn't mind Ghost beating him up. Everyone on the team cared for Roach, eventhough he could be annoying as hell, and they had all found out that they couldn't really live without him. Just the couple of days he was gone, everyone had gone slightly depressed. Usually they would all fool around, and Roach would come up with stupid ideas to pass time.

Even Meat and Royce, who usually spend their time pranking and annoying Roach, had said several times, that they actually missed him.

"Everybody get ready! We have a bug to save! Meet me for briefing in full gear in 15 minutes we have to move fast!" MacTavish yelled, and everyone quickly did as he said.

MacTavish hurried to get ready as he saw Ghost. When everyone had started to put on their gear, he already had his on. Sometimes MacTavish felt that Ghost could read his mind.

"Ghost… You're more than welcome to beat up Antonio. As long as he's still alive, Shepherd can't complain. You're not going to deny it anymore, you care about Roach don't you." MacTavish said quietly.

"I would have beaten him up anyway without your permission, but it's nice to see you wouldn't mind. And yes… I do care, eventhough he's bloody annoying, he has grown on me. He's in the top 3 of the recruits, he's managed to befriend everyone on the base and he is usually a reason why everyone is happy. And when I've been alone with him, I'll admit he's managed to make me smile and laugh. He's a great kid and I regret that I've been pushing him away from me." Ghost said as he looked into the floor.

"Don't worry mate. We're going to get him out of there alive." MacTavish said smiling.

"If Roach dies… I'll kill him again." Ghost said chuckling.

"Do we have a little bit of bromance here or what?" MacTavish needed to say that, he wanted to see Ghost's reaction.

"… I guess." Ghost said quietly. "Now… are we going to save his arse or what?" He said as he stood up and he and MacTavish went to briefing. Everyone was already there ready to go.

"Okay from now on this is mission 'Save a Bug'. But we also still have our main objective to kill Dimas and capture Antonio. We will split into a couple of teams. Team Alpha will be: Me, Ghost, Angel, Worm, Meat, Royce and Pharaoh. We will go in and capture Antonio, take out Dimas and get Roach. And we'll take out who we can on the way. Team Bravo will be: Scarecrow, Ozone, Rocket, Chemo and Robot. When I say go, you bust in through the main gate and take out as many tangos as possible. Team Charlie will be: Neon and Pieces, I expect you to take care of the power and then you'll join team Bravo. And Archer and Toad you'll be sniper support, and you'll probably be busy."

Everyone nodded, they knew they were working against time, because right now Roach was probably bleeding out.

"How are we going to be able to go back to base? Baseplate doesn't even know we're going now, and they won't be able to get ready on time." Archer said.

"Well, the person extracting us will be a new member of the team. I finally got Shepherd to agree on taking him in. His name is Nikolai and from now on he will probably be the one extracting us. He's an old friend of mine and he's a good guy, with his own plane. But we should get going; we have a roach to save." MacTavish said and everyone got up.

_45 minutes later…_

"Team Bravo in position… Team Charlie in Position… Sniper support is ready to go." MacTavish heard over the comms.

"Good, Team alpha is ready; we are in the sewers waiting to get in. Cut the power." MacTavish said and then he could hear something he expected to be Portuguese. He and the rest of team Alpha turned to Ghost. "The power is out and they're complaining about it. Let's go." Ghost said.

MacTavish was the first to climb into the room. There was one tango so he silently took him out and hid him in a dark corner. The rest of Alpha came up from the sewers and positioned themselves.

They went through the base as quickly as possible and took out any tangos on the way. They ended up in front of the room where Roach and Antonio was. They had used the GPS they had inserted in Roache's arm and they could hear that Antonio was in the room. Ghost looked ready to bust open the door.

"We're going to bust through the door, and take down Antonio. Ghost you can have your way with him, just don't kill him. And then we are going to patch up Roach as good as possible. Ready?" MacTavish said and the team nodded.

"3… 2… 1…" MacTavish kicked open the door and the team stormed in the little room and Ghost was already all over Antonio. He beat him up so bad that he started coughing up blood.

"Ghost relax mate, you'll kill him." Ghost stopped the beating and but a bag over the man's head and tied up his arms so they were ready to get him out. He then ran over to Roach.

MacTavish had to admit that he didn't look good. He was very pale because of the massive blood loss. His heart rate was low and in general he looked like he could die any second.

Angel was patching him up as good as possible while Royce took care of Antonio.

"You're going to be okay mate. We're going to get you patched up okay." Ghost said to Roach and he slowly lifted his head.

"Ghost? … You have no idea how glad I am to see you." Roach said quietly.

"Don't you dare close your eyes; we're getting you out of here. Do you understand?" Ghost said.

"I get you. I'm not leaving anytime soon. I'm Roach remember, I'm not that easy to kill." Roach said with a little chuckle. But he could see Ghost was worried. If they didn't get him medical attention soon, he was going to die.

"Mr. Fernandez care to tell us where Dimas is?" MacTavish asked.

"You too late military man. He left hour ago. He already gone." Antonio said laughing.

"Team Bravo and Snipers, we have Roach and Antonio, but our friend Antonio says Dimas is already gone." MacTavish said.

"Well, he's lying because I can see him in my scope. He's hiding out in a small room very close to your position. I can take him out and you'll just have to confirm the kill." Archer said over the comms.

"Take the shot." MacTavish replied and soon after he could hear glass break. Ghost picked up roach in a bridal carry and the team stormed out of the room

"Team Bravo GO! We're coming out as fast as we can." MacTavish yelled.

"Roger that, Supporting from the main gate." Scarecrow said.

MacTavish followed Archer's directions as to where Dimas had been, and he told the rest of Alpha to keep going. They needed to get Roach out of there. He went into the room and saw Dimas on the floor. He quickly checked his pulse to make sure he was gone.

"Kill confirmed Sniper team."

"Good. Moving to second position closer to the EZ, with continues sniper support." Archer said.

"Nikolai, we need immediate extraction!" MacTavish said as he ran to get to the rest of team Alpha.

"Copy that Soap. I will be there in 10 minutes." Nikolai said with his heavy accent. He was the only one to still call him Soap. That might have something to do with, no one else knowing his call sign was Soap.

MacTavish caught up to the rest of Alpha. They were halfway through the courtyard leading out. Ghost was trying to make sure Roach was staying awake, while Royce was trying to make Antonio stay put. The rest of the team was shooting their way out.

They finally had the chance to run, and they did. They met up with team Bravo, who watched their back as they ran for Nikolai's plane. He was standing outside waiting for them to arrive. They all got in the plane as quickly as possible. The only ones they needed to arrive now, was Archer and Toad. MacTavish looked around to see them running as fast as they could. They basically jumped into the plane and the big cargo door was closed and Nikolai was quick to take off.

MacTavish went over to Ghost, who trying the best he could to patch up Roach. The other patch job Angel had made was something that was only going to work until they arrived at Nikolai's plane. There hadn't been time for anything else.

"Hang in there Roach. You'll be okay. We need you to stay awake a couple of hours and then Doc will take care of you." Ghost said to Roach who was still looking terrible.

"I'm so tired… I just need to close my eyes a couple of seconds… just a couple of seconds." Roach said tiredly.

"I know you're tired, but I need you to stay awake. I'll give you something for the pain, but I need you to stay awake." Ghost said back. MacTavish could see he was starting to panic. He then noticed the rest of the team had their eyes on Roach as well and they were all quiet. They had all started to wonder if he was going to make it.

Meat stood up and walked over to Roach.

"Hey bro. I know I'm an asshole to you most of the time, and I'm really sorry about that, but we all need you to hang in there. Please for the sake of the rest of us. I don't know what Ghost will do to us if you die. He'll probably kill us with his training. So please man, hang in there."  
Roach tried to laugh, but he stopped again as it hurt him.

"Ghost has said he would kill you if you die. He will haunt you forever with his training if you die. He won't even leave you alone in the afterlife." MacTavish said with a smile.

"Bloody hell. Then I better not die. I'm sorry Ghost, but I don't even think I'll be able to live with your training in death." Roach said and gave a little smile. Ghost didn't really know what to say, but MacTavish could see him smile under his balaclava.

_Several hours later…_

MacTavish was in his office with Ghost, who wouldn't sit down. He was pacing around waiting to hear something from Doc.

"Your pacing won't make it go faster." MacTavish said to Ghost who stopped moving.

"I know but I can't concentrate about anything, until I know he's alright." Ghost replied back. He walked around for a few more minutes, until one of Doc's assistants came in.

"He's alive and he just woke up. He's in pain right now and still in a pretty bad shape. But he'll heal. It'll take at least week before he will be able to get out of bed. And only he will know when he's ready to return to training." The assistant said.

"Any complications during the operation?" MacTavish asked and the man looked like it didn't go to well.

"To be honest, the operation was terrible. He died twice and we almost lost him three more times. But you're welcome to come see him." The man said.

"Thank you for telling us." MacTavish said and the man nodded.

Before they knew it Ghost was already out the door and they followed him. They came to the infirmary and MacTavish and Ghost walked over to Roach. He was still looking bad, but a little better than earlier.

"So how are you doin' mate?" MacTavish asked.

"Bloody great. Never been better." Roach smiled at his captain.

"Good you're alive. Ghost was scared shitless." MacTavish laughed and Roach kept an eye on Ghost, who didn't even protest as MacTavish had thought he would.

"I told you I would be fine man. It's not that easy to kill a Roach. But um… I don't think I'll be able to participate in your training anytime soon." Roach said as he looked at Ghost.

"I'm just glad you're okay, and about the training. I guess that's okay. I can't really ask you to go out there in that condition now can I?" Ghost said as he chuckled.

"Mannnn… that was so shitty. I'm never being bait again. I can handle going out there doing my thing in battle, but having to stay undercover is sooo boring. You just kind of creep around and listen to what everyone is saying. Being undercover is bloody boring, I would prefer doing some kind of normal stealth mission any day." Roach said as he leaned back in the bed.

"If you're going to do stealth, I have to give you some lessons mate. I have told you before that you're just as quiet as an elephant. It's terrible." Ghost said.

"You have a point. I'm pretty bad at stealth aren't I?" Roach said as he laughed.

"You should get some rest before the rest of the team shows up." MacTavish said and Roach nodded.

MacTavish and Ghost left the room to tell the others that Roach was awake. And then MacTavish knew he would have to call Shepherd about them having Antonio. He also knew he had to find an excuse as to why, he had two black eyes, a broken nose and in general just why the most of his face was swollen.

**Chapter 12 is done, yay :D So Ghost managed to save Roach and let's just say this is a start of a beautiful friendship. Next chapter will be from Ghost P.O.V (eventhough it's usually from MacTavishe's) and it'll be some bonding time between him and Roach. I think it kind of calls for it after this chapter :)**

**I have also noticed that I might be better at writing mission stories which only contain a few characters. Like MacTavish, Ghost Roach and maybe two more guys. There is so much to keep an eye on, when you chose to make a mission with the entire TF. So mission chapters from now on, will probably only contain 2-6 guys and NOT 16. It's way to confusing.**

**To Donakiko: You are more than welcome to kick Antonio's arse, he deserves it after hurting Roach. I actually managed to make myself mad while writing it XD And I just wanted to say thank you, to you as well, since you have basically been here since I started my story, and you're reading the other ones as well. It really means a lot to me, to see that you have stuck around :D**

**I hope you have all enjoyed it, and as always you're more than welcome to review :)**


	13. Chapter 13: Bonding

**Ghost's P.O.V**

* * *

Ghost was sitting in the mess hall trying to read a book, however, it wasn**'**t that easy since Scarecrow and Archer had teamed up and was chasing Ozone and Toad around. Even Ghost started feeling bad for Ozone and Toad; they were always the ones to be picked on.

"Would you guys bloody stop?!" Ghost yelled at the men, who just stopped running and started staring, not really knowing what to do. Ghost looked at them and decided to give them his stare of death. It worked and the men decided to go outside instead.

Ghost returned to his book, but he couldn't help smiling as he saw Roach standing around a corner. He really had to give the kid some stealth lessons.

"Bug! I see you; I have told you a million times you're horrible at stealth." Ghost said and Roach came around the corner. "Damn it! How do you do that? When will you start my lessons? I want to be able to do that to." Roach complained.

"Years of training bug, years of training. And shouldn't you be relaxing? You still haven't healed completely." Ghost said to his friend.

"Years of training? How old are you? And I was told I could go out today, as long as I don't strain myself." Roach smiled.

"I'm 26 and I have been in the military since I was 18, so that's almost 10 years of experience. Plus I'm a fast learner. And if you shouldn't strain yourself, you shouldn't even try and think." Ghost said mockingly.

"Hahaha, very funny you bloody arsehole. I'm just pretty sure you're a ninja or something. No one should be that good at stealth." Roach said studying Ghost to see if he reacted at the word ninja. Ghost thought about how stupid Roach was.

"Bug, if I am a ninja, you have just discovered my secret, and therefore you have to die. From now on, I would sleep with one eye open, if I was you." Ghost said jokingly, but he could see Roach getting serious.

"Well shit… Hey! Do you want to do something?" Roach said smiling again. He had the incredible gift of being very serious one second and then being a five year old, the next.

"Depend on what it is?" Ghost said a little worried about what Roach had thought about.

"Just going outside for a walk and talk or something like that." Roach said and smiled as he waited for Ghost to answer.

"Well, I guess that couldn't hurt. It's better than rotting up in here." Ghost said and closed his book. He then told Roach that he would go back to his room to leave his book and get a jacket.

On the way to his room, he bumped into MacTavish.

"Where are you going mate? It looks like you're in a hurry." MacTavish said as he looked curiously at his friend. "Just going to take a walk with Roach." Ghost quickly answered and MacTavish nodded and smiled.

Ghost entered his room and threw his book on his bed. He then quickly grabbed his coat and went back to Roach who was standing there waiting.

They went outside and soon they heard screaming. All of the sudden they saw Scarecrow and Archer running away, while Ozone and Toad were chasing them, while they were pulling lumps of grass and dirt out of the ground and threw it at them. Ghost thought that maybe they had got enough and finally fought back. The screaming apparently came from Scarecrow and Archer. They did have a terrified look on their face as they ran past them.

Ghost and even Roach shook their heads. They walked to a nearby forest, where there was a track you could follow. It was a great place if you wanted to be alone.

"What do you want to talk about bug?" Ghost said while fiddling with his pockets looking for his cigarettes.

"I don't know Casper." Roach said with a little smile. _Did he just call me Casper?_ Ghost thought to himself.

"You just called me Casper." Ghost said not really knowing how else to react.

"Well you keep calling me bug, so I call you Casper. It's the same thing." Roach said with a smirk.

"Sorry… but how are you holding up after… you know." Ghost asked carefully, he didn't want to bring up anything the younger man didn't want to talk about.

"I'm okay, it was a terrible experience and all, but I've been through bad things before, so I know how to deal with it. I didn't get the name Roach for nothing." He smiled.

"Aye, I see. Want a cigarette?" Ghost asked, actually interested in what had happened previously.

"Sure, Doc says I shouldn't, but if I don't I'll start getting moody." Ghost couldn't help it when he started chuckling. He thought about how it would be if Roach got moody, that would be hilarious.

"Sooo… About you?" Roach started.

"What about me?"

"You were pretty worried huh?"

"Yeah, you were in a pretty bad condition and I didn't want you to die."

"So you care?"

"Define care."

"Like you care about me, in a non-gay way."

"… yes I do."

"May I ask why, because you've been an arsehole, since I came here."

"I don't know why Roach. You just grow on people and it's hard to explain. But I've been an arsehole because I didn't want to become emotionally attached."

"Why not? If you have become anyway, then why not sooner?"

"Because people I care about usually end up dying or betraying me…"

"Oh… what do you mean?"

"I'll give you the short version… My father was an arsehole, he cheated on my mother. My brother ended up becoming a druggie. I joined the military and ended up on a mission, where my captain, who I considered a close friend, betrayed our team. I was tortured for months, while they also attempted brainwash, which worked on my teammates. I was buried alive but I escaped. When I came back home, my teammates who I also considered friends, killed my entire family, and then I killed them, and the one responsible for the torture and brainwash."

"… I-… Fuck. How many people know about this?"

"You, 'Tav and an old captain."

"What are the after effects of shit like that?"

"Insomnia, trembling hands and insanity."

"That's bad…"

"But what about you? You said you had seen some pretty bad things yourself."

"Well, most of the people I'm around also end up dying. Some of my best friends have been blown up right in front of me, and I've had to sit with several who ended up dying in my arms. I've been in situations where almost all my teammates died, but I somehow miraculously survived. I've been tortured a little bit as well and things like that."

"That's pretty bad as well. And you cope with this, how?"

"You already know. Acting like a five year old usually helps. How do you cope? Let me guess, being a sadistic lieutenant who wants to see his recruits suffer during training?" He said chuckling.

Ghost couldn't help but laugh. He didn't really know how else to react.

"So what's with the mask and stuff like that?" Roach asked. Ghost had been waiting for that question.

"It helps keeping me anonymous. And if I can keep anonymous, no one has to know about my problems or ask about it. I can just be alone and deal with it that way. It's the easiest."

"I don't even know how you look without it. I know people have stolen it once in a while, but you're quick to catch them and put it back on. Has anyone seen your face?"

Ghost stopped walking and it took a couple of seconds before Roach realized he had stopped. Ghost took of his sunglasses first and then put his hand at the rim of his balaclava. He hesitated a little bit before he pulled it off. Roach just stood there and stared.

"Dude… I'm not gay or anything, but why the bloody hell would you hide a face like that?"

Ghost chuckled "I don't know. What I said before and hide the scar I guess." He said as he ran his finger down his scar. It went from his cheek to his jaw. It wasn't as visible anymore, but it had always bugged him. It was one of Manuel Roba's many artworks on his body.

"The scar is not that bad. It's actually pretty cool and we all have scars here and there. In our profession it's impossible not to have any."

"Here and there… That's because you haven't seen the rest of them. Trust me there's a lot more there is way worse than that."

"Whatever, who cares anyway. Look on the bright side; chicks love guys with scars from battle. Chicks just like guys from the military in general and if it shows you're a little battle hardened as well, that's not a bad thing."

"You have a point."

They continued to walk around, talking about eberything and nothing at the same time. After a while the two men decided to go back to the base and see what everyone else what up to. Ghost had to talk to MacTavish anyway so it was probably for the best.

As they arrived at the base Ghost noticed, that Roach looked slightly depressed.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just that it was so nice talking to you, it was nice and quiet and all that stuff. And now I have to go talk to those morons. They're bloody idiots once in a while."

"You don't say… Don't you have a book you can go read or something?"

"I guess, but I also have this SpongeBob DVD-box with all the episodes, which I want to watch, but not with those idiots." Roach said depressed.

"You'll figure something out bug… Roach, sorry."

"It's okay." Roach chuckled as they both went inside and walked their separate ways.

_Late that night…_

Ghost was sitting in the mess hall, while everyone decided it was time for bed. The mess hall started emptying and Roach was the last one to get up. Ghost got up from his seat and ran over to Roach.

"You're not going to bed just yet." Ghost said and Roach looked confused.

"What? Why?" He asked confused.

"Because you're going to get that SpongeBob DVD-box and we're going to watch it. Be here in 10 minutes. I'll make popcorn and get us something to drink. If you're up for it of course."

"Are you kidding?" Roach asked surprised.

"No, not at all. Hurry up." Ghost said as he turned around and walked to the kitchen. He could feel Roach stare at him, but then from the corner of his eye he could see him smile.

* * *

**So here we go with bonding :) Now it'll go back to the usual P.O.V. In the game it seems like Ghost and Roach has some sort of relationship, bromance thing going on. Especially in 'loose ends'. So I knew I would have to do this one day or another :D**

**So Roach getting moody, that's definitely a one-shot idea XD But to be serious for a second, I have always thought that Roach being childish, must be him dealing with some pretty fucked up stuff. So I decided to incorporate that into this.**

**I know this was a little shorter than usual, sorry about that ;)**

**But I hope you enjoyed, and you're welcome to review :D**


	14. Chapter 14: Story Time with Meat

**Warning! Minor sexual descriptions!**

"I am so bored" Roach said while lying his head down on the table in the mess hall. It wasn't just Roach who was bored, everyone was, MacTavish noticed. He also understood why. When you have just come home from an action packed mission, and then all of the sudden having to go back to doing nothing, is not easy. MacTavish noticed even Ghost was sighing. He just hoped this wouldn't turn out like the last time they were bored.

After that he had found out that alcohol was not exactly a very good idea to bring into the base. He sighed just at the thought of it. It had got so bad, so fast. Meat was hitting on Royce a couple of guys had passed out, and then he had to take care of Ghost. Ghost hadn't remembered anything the day after, but MacTavish had told him anyway, just to make sure he could use it as bribery one day.

He would probably be willing to do a lot of things, just to make sure MacTavish didn't tell anyone. Sometimes he felt bad about it; because he did owe Ghost his life, but hey, it wasn't his fault he had got that drunk.

"Well I have an idea." Meat said looking around. Everyone was skeptical, when Meat had an idea it usually ended up terribly. MacTavish couldn't even remember one time where one of his ideas had gone well.

"Depends on what it is. You NEVER have good ideas. It always ends up badly…" Ghost said looking at Meat.

"Don't worry man, have a little faith. Everyone gather round, gather round, and let uncle Meat tell you a little story!" Meat said.

"Gather around uncle Meat? That just sounds fucking wrong man…" Angel said chuckling and everyone nodded in agreement.

"What's the story going to be about anyway?" Archer asked. Archer was a quiet one. He was surprised he and Ghost wasn't the best of friends. Both of them were so miserable all the time, that they would be a perfect couple. But he guessed that miserable plus miserable equals disaster.

"Well you'll see won't you? Now how to start this of?" Meat said as he went into story telling mode. Everyone sighed, but as they had nothing better to do, they could just as well listen. MacTavish had a bad feeling about this though.

A man turned in his bed, only to see his girlfriend lying next to him. She was so beautiful when she was lying there, and not to forget a sexy bombshell as well. She was everything a man could ever want.

Sexy as hell, never said no to sex, and she was always there when he needed her. He felt lucky for having her.

"Good morning beautiful." The man said sleepily, caressing his girlfriend whose name was Kimberly. He then thought back on the night before. It had been a while since they had done it like that and as many times as that.

To be honest he didn't get to see her very much, so when they finally got the chance, it could get pretty wild. He had smuggled her in on the TF-141 base after everyone had left. They had a week off, and the man saw it as a perfect opportunity to smuggle her in. No one was going to know anyway.

Everyone looked at Meat. They had to admit, that so far the story had been pretty interesting. Mostly because of that Kimberly character.

They had done it everywhere. It was lucky if she actually let him sleep or eat. But the man didn't mind. Once he had just taken a shower, and of course she had asked him to join, but for the first time he actually said no. He really needed to shower and she understood. That didn't change the fact that she had just waited for him to exit the shower, and then she was all over him again.

It kept going like this for several days until the man heard the front door to the base open. Why were they coming back so soon? He still had two more days until they should be coming back.

"Ghost?!" a familiar voice called out, it was MacTavish. Ghost quickly made sure there were no signs of Kimberly anywhere before MacTavish walked in.

"Had a nice vacation?" Ghost said as he left his room, trying to look as normal as possible. However, he found it very hard. He had always had the feeling that MacTavish was able to look right into his soul, and see the truth. So staying normal wasn't exactly the easiest task in the world.

"I guess it was fine. I just decided to come back a little early. I hope you don't mind?" MacTavish said smiling.

"Course not. Anything happened?" Ghost asked his superior, as it made it easier to play it cool.

"Nothing terrible. My family just gives me a never ending headache once in a while. Sometimes their pretty terrible being around." He said as he looked at Ghost who nodded.

Ghost watched as MacTavish left the hallway to go to his room and unpack. He let out a sigh when he couldn't see him anymore.

When he was sure his superior was gone, Ghost looked down on his hand and said "Don't worry Kimberly; we'll get back to where we left off tonight.

Everyone looked at Meat and then to Ghost and started laughing. MacTavish laughed so hard. That had been a pretty good story. He then looked to Ghost to see his reaction and everyone seemed to do the same. He looked pissed.

"What's wrong sir? You can't take a little joke?" Meat said laughing.

"Meat, if I were you I would be running right now, before I tear you a new one." Ghost said and looked at Meat. If looks could kill, Meat would have been shot, stabbed, burned, tortured, drowned and electrocuted at the same time.

Meat took in what his superior had just said and ran. He ran as fast as he could. "Permission to beat him up?" Ghost said looking at MacTavish, who was still laughing. MacTavish nodded and then Ghost took off after Meat. Everyone ran after them to see how far Meat would get.

For a little while he seemed to be doing okay. He was running as fast as he could, while Ghost was screaming swears no one could understand, because of his accent. In the end, they had to admit Meat didn't get very far before Ghost caught him. MacTavish thought about keeping Ghost from beating him up, but on the other hand, he kind of had it coming.

Ghost got Meat down on the floor and he basically beat him up. You could hear Meat screaming for help in between the blows, but no one decided to help him. MacTavish decided only to step in if Ghost was close to killing him. Meat had, had it coming for a while. He had always been a troublemaker.

After Ghost was done with Meat, he looked him in the eye signaling that he wouldn't mind doing it again if he had to. Meat on the other hand was just lying on the floor. He didn't look too good; he would get several bruises from the beating including a very big black eye. And he might even have got a broken nose.

"Scarecrow! Ozone! Mind taking Meat to the infirmary? We need to get him looked at."

"Of course sir." The two men answered.

"And Meat…" MacTavish said walking over to the man, who tried to stand up. "I hope you learned your lesson from this. Eventhough I had to admit it was a pretty good story."

"Thank you sir. But to be honest, I would take the beating again, just to see the look on his face one more time." Meat laughed, as he was dragged away by Scarecrow and Ozone.

MacTavish walked over to Ghost who was leaning up against a wall, watching as Meat was being towed away. MacTavish thought about Ghost beating him up. He probably should have done something, but it was way to comical to actually do anything about it.

"So…" MacTavish started as he looked at Ghost waiting for him to say something.

"So what? That kid pisses me off so much. He might be one of the best soldiers we have here, but he needs to learn respect." Ghost said.

"Someone's grumpy, eh?" MacTavish chuckled as he looked at Ghost.

"I'm not grumpy."

"Yes you are you bloody bastard and you know it!"

"What would you have done then?"

"Probably the same."

"Exactly."

"But you have to admit it was a pretty good story."

"No it wasn't."

"Come on grumpy."

"It was okay."

MacTavish slowly backed away from Ghost before he tried doing anything. He had a stupid plan, but it would be fun to see how Ghost would react.

"What are you doing 'Tav?"

"Oh nothing." MacTavish said with a grin.

"'Tav?"

"GHOST AND HIS HAND IS SITTING IN A TREE! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" MacTavish yelled. He knew he'd better run before he got the same treatment as Meat. All of the recruits were starring as MacTavish came running with Ghost at his heels.

"HELP ME! THERE'S A CRAZY BRIT AFTER ME! HEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!" MacTavish yelled as he quickly ran outside, still with Ghost running after him, swearing.

**Woop! Ending of chapter 14 ;) I have had this one on my mind for so long now, and decided it was time to share it with you guys. You have no idea, how hard it was for me to write this. I couldn't stop myself from laughing the entire time writing it. I still surprise myself once in a while of how immature my mind is XD and yes I know this was again shorter than usual, I am very sorry :) Can you forgive me? I promise they will go back to their usual length :)**

**Originally it was a oneshot, but I thought it had been a while since we've had some fun chapters in this, so it ended up here anyway. No need to be so serious all the time. I'll probably be writing some goofy chapters to make up for the seriousness and things like that, which has been going on for a while now :)**

**Please review to tell me what you think :)**


	15. Chapter 15: An Unexpected Visitor

MacTavish was pacing around in his office. It wasn't because he was nervous; it was because he was thinking. In 5 minutes he was going to talk to the man named Angel about his thriving at the base. MacTavish had been worried for him in a while, because he was always so quiet and he didn't seem like he was happy most of the time.

His recruits personal life wasn't something he usually thought about, because everyone was depressed once in a while. But Angel just never acted like the others, when they didn't have anything to do, he would usually just sit in his room. Even when they were training he was the quietest. He just did what he was told and he was damn good at everything they made him do.

MacTavish sat down in his chair as he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in." He said and Angel walked in. MacTavish gestures for him to sit down and he did. They sat in the silence for a while until Angel spoke.

"You wanted to speak to me sir?" Angel said quietly.

"Aye. I just wanted to know if there's anything you want to tell me?"

"Not that I know of sir."

"Are you sure? You have just seemed very depressed ever since you got here. I know I shouldn't interfere with anyone's private life, but I am beginning to worry. Also because you always tend to keep to yourself and you don't really do all the stupid things, the others do."

Angel started chuckling "There's nothing wrong sir, I'm fine seriously. I just like keeping to myself, I enjoy my solitude. And well, I just prefer not to act like a dumbass in front of my superiors. That doesn't mean I don't though." He said with a smile.

"I see. You seem close to Roach, am I correct?"

"He's probably my closest friend here. We do stupid shit as well. It's just not something anyone knows about."

"Aye, then we're done. I was just getting worried, but I'm happy you're okay."

"Thank you sir, I'm glad you care." Angel said as he got up and left the room with a smile.

MacTavish thought he should probably get some paperwork done; he still had a report he had to get done from their last mission. He thought about if he could get Ghost to do it, he was his right hand-man so he kind of had to if MacTavish asked him. He sat there thinking about it for a while, until he realized Ghost had enough paperwork himself. He happened to have more than MacTavish, because he usually took his, since he knew it wouldn't get done if he didn't.

MacTavish started feeling bad, he always made his friend do so much and he never really complained. Ghost usually just sighed a little bit, but then he got it done. MacTavish realized he hadn't seen Ghost since morning, where he trained the guys. He decided to go and find his friend to see if he was okay.

After he had wandered around for a while he came to the briefing room. As he walked by he could hear someone snoring lightly. MacTavish opened the door and smiled at the sight. Ghost was lying with his head on the computer, obviously sleeping. He moved around a little bit once in a while. MacTavish thought that he needed to find a way to make sure Ghost didn't work too much. He knew it would be difficult since Ghost was basically a workaholic. He was always working on something.

MacTavish went over to his friend and poked him to make him wake up. He made sure to keep his distance though, because he knew about his reflexes. He had been the victim of that one time and he was determined for it to never happen again.

"Ghost mate, wake up." MacTavish said and he immediately got a reaction from Ghost.

"I'm awake; I was just resting for a second."

"Go to bed, it doesn't happen often that you sleep."

"I'm almost done with this. Just give me 10 minutes."

"What are you working on?"

"The report from the last mission. Sorry, I forgot to tell you I would take care of it."

"Thank you, now go to bed!"

"Who are you? My mum?"

"Yes, time for bed you brat."

"Geez, mum." Ghost said with a chuckle as he took his computer and left for his room. MacTavish went out of the room and closed the door. After a few seconds he heard screaming and yelling from the mess hall. He went over to the door that led in and stopped outside to eavesdrop on what was going on. It was Archer and Toad.

"Give it to meeee! It's mine Archer! Give it back!" Toad yelled.

"No, you've had it longer than we agreed on. It's mine now!"

"NOOOO! You had it for longer as well; you have had it a week longer than me!"

"Too bad Toad. I outrank you."

"Hey, that's not fair!"

"Nothing is fair in life Toad, you need to realize that."

"Archer, I'll kick your arse you bastard."

"I want to see you try."

Toad let out a battle cry and jumped Archer, who was now fighting a very mad Toad on the floor. MacTavish started chuckling and walked into the room. Toad and Archer were like brothers, Archer being the older, more experienced and a bigger asshole, while Toad was the younger, more shy and nicer person.

"So what is it this time?" MacTavish asked with a smile.

"Hey it's not fun! Archer stole the newest scope. We are both trying to figure out if it's worth anything before you order more. So we decided on taking turns to try it out, but Archer seems to have problems with sharing!"

"No I don't, you have gone over your time with the scope, so of course it's mine now."

"I only went over time because you went over time!"

"That is some bullshite Toad, and you know it."

"Is not!"

"Is so!"

"Is not!"

"Is so and you know it you wanker!"

MacTavish started chuckling again and decided to leave them to it. Once they got into a fight like this, there was no way they would be able to break it up. It was something both he and Ghost had decided to let them handle themselves.

_Later that day…_

MacTavish was sitting in his office when he heard a weird noise. He wasn't sure but it sounded like… propellers. He looked out the window and saw a black chopper with marine seal on it. He watched as a man stepped out of the chopper, at first he didn't know who it was, but as he took a closer look he could see it was Shepherd.

_Shite… He didn't tell me he would show up! Oh god he'll kill me when he sees how people are acting… I'm getting fired… I'm so fired._ MacTavish thought as he started panicking.

He stood up and ran out the room to get to Shepherd before he got in. MacTavish ran into the mess hall and ran into Ghost.

"What's with the running?"

"SHEPHERD IS HERE!" MacTavish screamed as he gave a cry of panic and fear. For a second he actually thought he was going to cry.

"Fucking hell, you're so fired." Ghost laughed.

"DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW YA BLOODY MORON?!" MacTavish left Ghost standing and laughing as he ran out of the room to greet Shepherd. He could see the confused face on Shepherd as he came running.

"Is something wrong MacTavish?"

"No. Everything is just fine, I just wanted to give you a proper greeting. I missed you… I mean it has been a while since we last talked." MacTavish said with a big awkward smile. Did he just say that he had missed Shepherd? _Why did I say that? I don't even trust the man… Fuck me._ He thought to himself.

"Are you crying?"

"Yes… I'm just so happy to see you!"

"I have to admit that is a little weird MacTavish. But I expect you to show me around the base and tell me how it's going. I would also like to meet your men." MacTavish gave a cry again and then he realized he hadn't just done it in his head.

"Of course sir. Let's go… I'm just so happy to see you here… I missed you so much… You're my best friend." MacTavish said with a tearful voice. He was trying to suck up as much as possible to try and not get fired.

"Oh… that's not strange at all. Can you tell me how it's been going here since you started recruiting?"

"Everything is going fine. That's a very nice pair of boots sir. I just thought I would let you know."

"Thanks, I think. How are the men acting? Are they serious about their job?"

"Aye. They do what we tell them and they take their job very serious. Of course there are moments where they… let go a little bit. But I only think that is good for them as it keeps them sane."

"I understand. But as long as it's not every day."

"You didn't say you were showing up today sir."

"I like to surprise my teams by showing up. It's the easiest way of seeing if everything is as it should."

MacTavish was panicking inside. He thought of ways where he would be able to get away with murdering Shepherd just to make sure he wasn't going to walk through the doors at the base. They were walking in silence and MacTavish could already hear Shepherd yelling at him that he was fired. Oh god he was so fired.

They came up to the doors and MacTavish stopped in front of them banging on them loudly and speaking loudly to warn the guys inside.

"YOU SEE SHEPHERD SIR! A NICE STURDY DOOR! EVERY BASE NEEDS THESE!" MacTavish yelled.

"Why are you yelling MacTavish?"

"I'm not sir. I just always SPEAK VERY LOUDLY. I'M SORRY." MacTavish opened the door to see that everyone in this room was behaving they were sitting at a table playing cards. Some of them were panting. MacTavish guessed it was from running around in panic.

"Shepherd sir. How nice of you to come and visit us." Meat said with a smile as the rest of the guys in the room lined up to greet Shepherd.

"Hello sergeant. And hello to the rest of you. I'm just taking a look around to see if everything is as it should be."

The men nodded and smiled. MacTavish led the Shepherd on but quickly looked back at Meat and nodded at him. Meat mouthed 'anytime' as he went back to what they were doing before. MacTavish led Shepherd down the hallway and told him which rooms were what.

As they went by MacTavish's office, the door opened. Ghost walked out of the room and MacTavish had got good enough at reading his body language, to know that he was telling him that he had taken care of everything.

"Sir. Nice of you to come."

"Thank you lieutenant. I see you're still wearing that mask."

"Yes, but as long as it doesn't interfere with my work, I don't think it's a problem."

"You're right about that. Once MacTavish has shown me around the rest of the base, I expect to see the men's latest training results."

"Of course sir." Ghost said as he walked back into the office.

MacTavish led Shepherd through the rest of the base and everyone was acting normal. He let out a small sigh of relief as they went back towards the mess hall. As they went in everyone had gone in there and they lined up ready to say hello to Shepherd. MacTavish was rather surprised to see that everyone was decent. They didn't do anything stupid and they were lined up perfectly. He knew it was Ghost's work that made sure they knew how they were supposed to greet a superior, because he sure as hell hadn't taught them.

_15 minutes later…_

Shepherd had greeted everyone and was told every single man's call sign. And then he had given them a little speech about the usual, on how they were supposed to be the best. As he was done he walked back towards MacTavish and Ghost.

"Dismissed." Ghost said to the men and they went back to their "usual" things.

"So I trust you have their times and everything lieutenant?"

"Of course, it's all in the captain's office."

They walked to MacTavish's office in the silence. Eventhough it seemed like he was going to get through this, he was still nervous. He had a feeling something terrible could happen anytime.

Ghost opened the door for Shepherd and let him and MacTavish walk in.

"So how is it going with them? Are they doing well in training or are they worthless, lieutenant?"

"They are doing very well; I have been a lieutenant for a while now, so I have trained people before. But I'll have to say, that they are some of the best I have seen. They all have places where they are strongest of course, but they are good in everything. I can't complain."

"It looks good, do you have anything to say about them Captain MacTavish?"

"I won't say I have anything to add. Ghost knows how to train his men, and he won't stop until he's satisfied."

Shepherd nodded and told both him and Ghost that they were doing a good job and they had to keep up the good work. He decided that he should get back, so MacTavish and Ghost thought it would be a good idea to follow him back to his chopper.

As they went to the mess hall they heard screaming and MacTavish started panicking again. Not even Ghost seemed like he was okay, and he gave such a big goofy smile under his mask that it was showing. MacTavish took Shepherd's arm.

"That is really some nice boots sir." MacTavish said as Ghost peeked in through the door. MacTavish didn't think it was possible, but Ghost gave a loud cry as he looked into the room.

"I'll be right back." He said as he slipped in through the door and soon after everything went quiet with small yells and screams once in a while.

"What is going on in there?" Shepherd asked as he walked over to the door almost walking in. MacTavish quickly grabbed his arm "PORN! They are making a parody of porn? Boys will be boys?" MacTavish said with a big awkward smile. _What am I saying?_ MacTavish thought to himself.

Shepherd shook his head and went in through the door with MacTavish, to see Meat grabbing and touching Roach from behind. Apparently they had heard what MacTavish had yelled from the hallway. Ghost on the other hand was standing in a corner facepalming.

"You have some really weird men MacTavish…" Shepherd said as he walked outside, leaving a still smiling MacTavish in the mess hall.

As they were sure Shepherd was gone Meat let go of Roach and everyone looked like they were still in shock.

"Really sir, porn parodies. Couldn't you have thought of something a little more normal?" Roach said as he sat down on a couch.

"I'm sorry, I didn't even know why I said that… Look on the bright side, no one is getting fired!" MacTavish said and everyone nodded and just sat down to get over the shock.

_That evening…_

MacTavish was sitting in his bedroom still thinking about how bad today's events could have gone. All of the sudden there was a knock on his door and Ghost walked in.

"How are you holding up?" Ghost asked.

"I'm fine. It could've gone worse."

"Yeah, but the porn thing was pretty bad. I'm surprised he didn't say anything but I guess his stare of evil was bad enough."

"Aye, that was pretty bad. I owe you one mate, you saved my arse today."

"You're welcome mate."

"I owe you a lot so far. My life and now my job, how am I ever going to repay you?"

"Don't worry about it. You're my best friend and I'll do anything for you mate."

"The same counts for you." MacTavish said with a smile as he and Ghost started talking about the day's events.

* * *

**That was chapter 15 :) So I thought it was time for Shepherd to pay a little surprise visit to the team. When I first came up with the idea my first thoughts were, "Well I think everyone is getting fired…", but I had to change that, or else I couldn't really continue this. So instead I give you a panicking MacTavish and some extremely awkward situations xD**

**I hope you enjoyed and as always you're welcome to review :D**


	16. Chapter 16: Jealous Much?

MacTavish crawled out of the burning wreckage that had once been his friend Nikolai's chopper. As he got away from it he sat down and coughed, because the smoke from the remains had got into his lungs. As he pulled himself together, he put his arm up to cover his mouth and nose as he ran back to the wreckage. He had to search for survivors. He couldn't be the only one.

He quickly ran over to the chopper and looked inside. He found nothing, no one was there, but the weirdest thing was, that there wasn't even a trace of anyone else. It was impossible, because him, Ghost, Roach and Nikolai had been in there. He quickly crawled back out and went away from the wreckage. If his friends weren't in it, they had to be nearby.

He looked around and he could quickly determine that they had crashed in some kind of desert. _Out of all places, we crash in a bloody desert…_ He thought to himself as he forced himself to keep moving. He went around the wreckage in a big circle to look for anything that could show him where his friends were. But the only thing he found was his own footprints which had been left in the sand.

He started moving away because he needed to find some sort of shelter. The sun was at its peak and it was hot as hell. After having walked for a while he found a small shack. He ran to it as he hoped to find someone in there. He quickly opened the door and stepped inside. He took a look around and noticed something or someone covered by a blanket in a corner.

"Hello? Is it one of you guys?" MacTavish said as he got closer to whatever it was under the blanket. He looked closely but the object didn't even seem to breathe. He watched the thing for a while, but quickly jumped back as it started moving. All of the sudden whatever it was shot up from under the blankets and revealed… a robot?

"Bleep bloop bleep motherfucker!" the robot said as MacTavish could feel himself being thrown away. He closed his eyes and awaited the impact…

MacTavish's eyes shot open as he hit the floor. He sat up only to see Roach and Ghost standing at the side of his bed holding his mattress. As he looked at them they started laughing.

"Good morning sir, time to get up don't you think?" Roach said he put MacTavish's mattress down again with Ghost.

"I hate you two… What time is it?"

"Don't be like that 'Tav. We couldn't let you lie there all day now could we, it's 11 AM mate." Ghost said as he stood next to MacTavish offering his hand to help him up.

"You're kidding right?" MacTavish said as he took Ghost's hand.

"Nope. People started getting worried so we decided to take action." Roach said smiling.

"Bloody hell. At least you saved me from the robot." MacTavish said. The last part was said quietly as it was mostly to himself. He should have known Ghost would hear it though, since he had ears like a bat.

"Robot? What the hell are you doing when we aren't around?" Ghost said as he looked at MacTavish suspiciously, or at least MacTavish thought he did. The damn mask made it difficult to see, but he had made it an art to read his friends body language.

MacTavish just shook his head and waved him off. He didn't feel like telling anyone about his dream right now. Not when he didn't even understand it himself. It had been a while since he had last had any weird dreams, but when he finally got some, it was so bloody random he didn't know what to think!

Ghost and Roach left the room chuckling and left MacTavish to put on some clean clothes. As he saw them walk out he sighed. He knew that Ghost and Roach had become pretty good friends ever since Roach almost died, but he found it annoying for some reason.

It started off with Roach just trying to get a little closer to Ghost and then BAM! The two seemed inseparable. It wasn't like he didn't understand Ghost, because Roach was a good kid. A little weird once in a while, but he was always there to make people smile or laugh. And MacTavish did like him; however he did have a thing with sticking his nose in things which didn't really involve him, especially after he got close to Ghost.

Sometimes it annoyed MacTavish that Roach seemed like he was so close to Ghost. It seemed like he thought he knew everything about him. But he didn't! Far from! The only one to actually know everything, the long story about Ghost's life and how he was feeling all the time, was MacTavish. He was the only one Ghost trusted with all this. Roach might know the short story, but he didn't know it all. To Ghost, Roach was probably just a childish outlet.

MacTavish noticed he had clenched his hands and quickly loosened up. What was wrong with him? He acted like he was… jealous or something. But that would never happen, that would be stupid, why would he ever get jealous of a bug?

_Later that day…_

MacTavish sat in his office doing paperwork as he waited for Ghost to enter the room. He had promised to come keep him company, but he hadn't shown up yet. Maybe he was doing something with Roach again? But they had been together during the morning, so why would they be together now? MacTavish noticed how he started feeling mad again, this was getting stupid. It was just Roach so what was the problem?

He decided to return to his paperwork as Ghost came through the door. He sat down in the chair across the desk and pulled off his mask. He then leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. MacTavish couldn't help himself from keeping an eye on Ghost and it didn't take long for Ghost to notice.

"What?" He said as he looked at MacTavish.

MacTavish sighed and shook his head "Nothing."

"Something is bothering you. I can tell."

"Ghost, nothing is wrong. Nothing you have to be concerned about anyway."

"So something is wrong? Is it about the robot you talked about earlier?"

"What? No."

"Then what is it? You just admitted something was wrong."

"Ghost you're getting annoying."

"That's just the way I am mate. You should know that by now. Now tell me about the robot thing, I'm curious."

"It was just a weird dream."

"So? Tell me."

"Don't laugh." Ghost nodded his head and listened as MacTavish told him about the dream.

"We had crashed in the middle of a desert, you, me, Roach and Nikolai, but for some reason there was no trace of you guys. I walked around and I found this little shack. As I went in, there was something under a blanket in a corner. I stepped closer and then the thing shot up from under the blanket. Apparently it was a robot and it looked at me and said 'bleep bloop bleep motherfucker' and I went flying through the air."

MacTavish looked into the table. He didn't really feel like looking at Ghost reaction because he would probably just make fun of him. He cursed at himself in his mind, for not being able to have some more realistic and manly dreams than robots who want to kill you. He sighed and took a look up at Ghost who had buried his head in his hands.

"What?" MacTavish said as he looked at his friend. Ghost turned his face away and just waved him off. MacTavish got worried as he saw Ghost beginning to shake "Are you okay mate?" He asked as the shaking got worse. For a second MacTavish just sat in the silence waiting for Ghost to do something because the shaking just seemed to get worse every second.

After a while Ghost burst out laughing. His face was all red from laughing and trying to hide his laugh. MacTavish hadn't seen him laugh like that for a very long time and he couldn't really get mad, so he just started smiling. After a while Ghost's laughing died down and he looked at MacTavish.

"Sorry mate, but that was some good shite."

"Well I'm glad you enjoyed it…"

"I haven't had that much fun for a while."

"What do you mean? You have fun all the time with _Roach_." He basically hissed Roach's name, but he didn't mean to. He really liked Roach, he really did.

"Something wrong with Roach?" Ghost asked as he looked curiously at MacTavish.

"No."

"Apparently there is."

"No there's not."

"Mate what's wrong?"

"I just thought you always had fun when you're with Roach. You two are always together anyway."

"We're always… Wait. Are you having jealous fits?"

"What? No."

"Yes you are." Ghost said chuckling.

"No I'm not ya bloody wanker! Why would I be jealous of Roach."

"Oh this is rich. You're jealous because I've started spending time with him. Mate, I don't always choose to be around Roach. He practically stalks me sometimes and it's easier just to be around him to make him go away for a while. He needs to be constantly entertained and right now, because we became some sort of friends, I'm the new toy he has to play with until it makes him bored. He just needs to get over the shock that I actually wanted to be his friend and then he'll start acting more normal. It's just a phase. I enjoy being around him, I really do, but he's still annoying as hell."

MacTavish looked at Ghost and he was a little bit ashamed that he hadn't thought of that. Of course it was a phase. Roach had had that too with Pharaoh. It lasted a little while but then he realized how overly attached he seemed and it kind of died down. It was a little worse with Ghost because he thought of him like a big brother, also because Ghost was kind of the one who made sure Roach didn't hurt himself all the time. Roach could be a clumsy bastard so Ghost was usually around to make sure he didn't do anything stupid.

"Aye I see. This is going to sound really gay, but I've been missing you a little lately. If you haven't been doing paperwork or something like that you have spent most of your time with Roach."

Ghost couldn't stop himself from chuckling. "Mate, you're my best friend. I care about Roach, but he isn't you. You know practically everything about me, and the other way around. I consider Roach a close friend and I guess I feel I have to act like an older brother towards him sometimes, but you'll always be my mate. That won't change. Trust me."

_One week later…_

It had been a week since MacTavish and Ghost had had their little talk. And since then it had definitely died down. Roach no longer had a need to be around Ghost 24 hours a day. They had their talks here and there and they went out for a smoke together once in a while as well. But now a new problem had started. Roach had got fond of trying to become friends with MacTavish.

MacTavish didn't mind, but he felt like he was going crazy since Roach had a thing about having to be around him all the time. He felt like he was always being watched and he never really had the chance to be alone.

He had talked to Ghost about it since he had already been through it, but he wasn't really helping much. When he tried talking to Ghost he basically said three things. 1. "How does it feel being stalked?" 2. "Now you feel the pain and annoyance I felt." And 3. "Don't worry it will end soon enough, give it a month or so." And then he would walk away laughing.

Eventhough it was bloody annoying MacTavish had to admit the kid started growing on him. He started feeling that need to protect his clumsy arse and keep him happy. But that wasn't exactly new. Ever since Roach had started on the team, both Ghost and MacTavish had been victims of the bug. He had grown on both of them and they both started feeling sad if he felt sad.

MacTavish had to say to himself that he couldn't get too involved though, since he was the captain of the team. But a little bit couldn't hurt. It was only a bug…

* * *

**Hey, ending of this chapter :D So I thought that since Ghost had started spending a lot of time with Roach, it would only be MacTavish's natural reaction to think he might be losing Ghost. But of course that will never happen ;) **

**Ghost and MacTavish are bros and that will never change. But it seems like Roach has started wanting to befriend his captain. So I think this might be the start of a very beautiful friendship between MacTavish, Ghost and Roach. I always felt like those three would have some sort of special bond :D Especially when you play the game. Those three just seem to be very good friends.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter and as always you are more than welcome to review and tell me your thoughts :D It always makes me happy to know what you think :3**

**P.S: I have no idea where the random robot dream came from. Sometimes I just start writing and the weirdest things come out of it xD**


	17. Chapter 17: Search and Destroy

MacTavish sat and looked out of the side of the chopper. He, Ghost, Roach and Worm was on their way to Kazakhstan. The mission in Portugal had led them here; they were now one step closer to the Russian murderer Makarov. This was a smaller mission so they didn't need that many. They had to get in a control tower, get an ACS module, download some files, destroy tower and get the hell out. Search and Destroy, easy as that. But all of them knew it wasn't going to be that easy. Something always went wrong.

MacTavish had together with Ghost decided to bring Worm along. His special was demolitions plus he was an aspiring hacker. Ghost had been teaching him lately, so it would also be good for Worm to watch as Ghost would have to find the files they also came there for.

MacTavish looked to the left and was greeted by a smiling Roach. MacTavish was going crazy. Roach had been clinging around him for a while now and it was getting a little annoying. But on the other hand, he felt awful for telling the kid to go away. He always got so sad and he couldn't handle that. Ghost was still making fun of him for it and he felt like punching him once in a while.

He looked into the cockpit and he saw Nikolai concentrating about doing his thing. Nikolai had recently joined the team, but it hadn't been easy. It took a lot of convincing to make Shepherd let him join. Nikolai wasn't there full time though. He was around once in a while, and he had become the one to pick them up and drop them off at missions.

Everyone had accepted their new Russian friend quickly and even Ghost got along well with him. Nikolai had found joy in testing Ghost's and Roach's Russian and so far none of them had failed. Roach wasn't as good at it as Ghost, but he was keeping up so far.

"10 minutes till we reach the LZ, my friends." Nikolai said with his heavy accent. MacTavish checked his M4A1 and made sure it was fully loaded. And then he checked his USP .45 as well. As always he had both weapons on safety until he landed, but he still made sure to keep his finger of the trigger.

He looked over at Ghost who was doing the same thing. Ghost had some sort of love for the ACR and his Desert Eagle. John had never been a big fan of the ACR himself, because it had too much recoil so it was a bitch to master, but when you did, it was very powerful. However, Ghost seemed like he had it fully under control. He had never seen him having problems with it. Once in a while he thought about asking Ghost to help him learn to wield it properly, but that would just end up with him being mocked, so that wasn't going to happen.

For some reason Roach had also found some sort of love for the ACR. It was probably because of Ghost, since he had done some weapons training with him. Since there he had mostly been using the ACR and he had quickly got good at using it.

"Preparing to land." Nikolai said and everyone got ready. They turned to the side of the chopper where they were supposed to get out and waited. It took less than a minute and the chopper had landed and was stable enough for them to move out. They had landed in a clearing and everyone got out and gathered at the edge of a forest. Nikolai took off again and they all sat in silence waiting until he was gone.

"Nikolai, stay in the airspace. This is supposed to be an easy mission, but we might need a quick exit." MacTavish said over the comms.

"Da. I got it. Out." Nikolai replied and MacTavish turned to the team.

"Sir. We better get moving. It's the safest if we want to make sure not to be spotted." Ghost said quietly while looking around. It was always so strange seeing how different he was when they went on a mission. When they were at the base, he usually just called him 'Tav or MacTavish and he was able to joke around. As soon as they went on a mission, he was a completely different person. He always called him sir, and he was very focused and quiet. He only spoke when he had too.

It was the same with Roach. He was a five year old at the base, but when they went on a mission he acted like the soldier he had to be. He was serious and he acted his age. Everyone always changed as soon as they came on a mission. It was something John had to get used to, because now it meant he needed to act like a real captain and not just as their friend.

"Aye, Roach you go with Ghost. Worm your with me. Spread out and follow the plan." He said and everyone did as he asked. Ghost disappeared further into the tree line with Roach right behind him. It didn't take long before they couldn't be seen anymore. As soon as he couldn't see them he and Worm started moving.

"Sir. Tango at 10 o'clock." Worm said quietly and MacTavish spotted the Tango. He made sure no one else was around before doing anything.

"Aye, looks like he's alone, but there might be more around so we have to keep an eye out. Take the shot." Worm fired and he hit the Tango in the back of the head. "Beautiful." MacTavish said. They stayed put for a few seconds to make sure no one else was there. John couldn't hear anything so he looked at Worm and nodded, to signal for them to keep moving.

They looked around in the snowy landscape moving around as silently as possible. The only sound being made was the snow under their boots and the occasional sound of their weapons firing, when they saw a Tango.

It didn't take long before they came close to the control tower. It was easy getting to it as it was right along a small, and somewhat deserted road. It was located there since there was a medium sized base close by. If they could in, they would get some valuable information on Makarov and his shipment of weapons and so on around the globe. Plus taking down the tower would probably put Makarov back a little, since this was one of his main centers for keeping track of his things.

MacTavish and Worm stayed at the tree line and moved in a little closer. He looked around and at the other side of the road he saw Ghost waving. Ghost and Roach was supposed to quickly get in the tower and take care of any Tangoes before they would be able to ring the alarm and then MacTavish and Worm would move in.

"We're moving in, in 5-4-3-2-1." Ghost said over the comms and MacTavish could see them moving. MacTavish and Worm kept an eye on the tower and they could see the flashing from inside. The flashing stopped and it was silent until John could hear Ghost again.

"Clear. Move in." He said and MacTavish and Worm moved in. They opened the door and quickly moved up the stairs to be greeted by Roach. They went into the room and Roach stayed by the door to keep an eye out. Worm moved over to Ghost who quickly sat down at a computer and started extracting files. MacTavish went over and took the ACS module which was lying on a table.

A couple of minutes passed and Ghost was still not done on the computer. MacTavish was getting annoyed that it took so long. Ghost was pretty fast at getting what he was after, so something must've troubled him.

"Ghost hurry up! We need to get out of here!"

"I know. But there is a problem. If I don't do this properly, which is the long way, there's a big chance I'll trigger an alarm at their base."

"Shite… just do it as fast as you can." Ghost nodded and continued working. It took another minute or two and then he had it. Worm quickly left his side and started unpacking the C4, they needed to destroy the tower. They put plenty in the control room and at several other places as they went down the stairs. They reached the door and went outside.

"C4 is armed." Worm said and the team started moving away from the tower. It was going to be a big explosion, which also meant that the enemy forces from the base would be alarmed. As soon as they did this they would have to start moving fast if they didn't want to get caught. MacTavish was a little nervous since there hadn't been any problems so far. There was always something to go bad and it hadn't happened yet.

"Nikolai, we're blowing the C4 soon get ready to meet us at the EZ." MacTavish said as they moved to a safe distance. "Moving to the EZ now captain MacTavish. I will be there in 15 minutes."

"Blowing C4 in 5-4-3-2-1." Worm said and pushed the button. The tower blew up and it sent a massive heat wave at them. They took a couple of seconds to recover and then they got up and started moving. They recovered distance quickly, but it didn't take long before they heard the Tangoes shooting at them. They quickly moved to cover and started firing.

MacTavish and Ghost were standing next to eachother at a knocked over tree. Several Tangoes fired and they both dropped down behind the tree.

"I was wondering when they would show up!" Ghost said chuckling and MacTavish couldn't help himself as he started chuckling as well. Eventhough Ghost was always so serious on missions; he still managed to keep his sense of humor in certain situations.

John looked over to Roach and Worm who was close by; they were holding their ground pretty well. He looked back at the Tangoes and shot at a couple of them. "We need to make a run for it to the EZ! GO GO GO!" he yelled and they all started moving.

They arrived at the EZ and there were still a couple of minutes until Nikolai would arrive. They would have to hold their ground, but it wasn't going to be easy. They were beginning to get heavily outnumbered. It seemed like the stream of Tangoes would never end.

"RPG! GET DOWN!" Ghost yelled as he pushed MacTavish down into the snow. They got up a couple of seconds later and MacTavish could see red bloodstains in the snow right next to him. He looked at himself, but he hadn't got injured. Then he looked to Ghost and saw a wood piece, piercing his leg. This was the second time he had saved his arse.

"Ghost are you okay!"

"Bloody great!" he yelled and soon they could hear Nikolai's chopper. Worm quickly moved over to MacTavish and Ghost and supported Ghost on one side while MacTavish took the other. Roach made sure to cover their six until they were in the clear.

They got Ghost into the chopper and MacTavish tapped Roach on the back to signal to him to get on. He turned around and threw himself in as Worm closed the door. Soon their attention turned to Ghost who didn't really say much, he was just focused on getting the wooden piece removed from his leg.

"Little help?" Ghost asked as he sat on the floor, holding a hand around the wood piece. MacTavish went over to him and removed his hand and took hold himself.

"Roach, Worm, I need something to patch him up with!" He yelled at the two men. They did as they were told and came back with a towel, bandages and something to clean the wound. This would only be temporary; Doc would have to patch him up as soon as they got back.

"Ready mate?" MacTavish asked and Ghost nodded. He pulled out the wooden piece and Ghost gave a little cry. MacTavish was given the towel which Roach had just put disinfectant on. John pressed down on the wound to stop the bleeding as much as possible before bandaging it up.

"This is the second time you've saved my arse." John said with a smile.

"Please don't make it a habit." Ghost just chuckled.

"I won't."

_Several hours later…_

MacTavish was sitting in his office; he had just got off the phone with Shepherd, telling him the mission had been successful. He heard a knock on the door and Ghost entered. He closed the door and went over to a chair with his cane.

"Like my new limp and cane?" Ghost said jokingly.

"Aye, it's wonderful."

"I know right?" MacTavish just shook his head and sighed.

"How long will it last?"

"They said I might be limping for the next two weeks and I have to keep the cane for the rest of the week. I hope you appreciate me saving your arse, but on the other hand, that means I can make you run training."

"I do appreciate it. And please don't…" MacTavish hated running training there was nothing worse, because it meant he would have to listen to Ghost yelling at him, because he wasn't doing things right. Ghost didn't just stay away. He was sitting in a chair right next to them, all the time to make sure it was done properly.

"You owe me big time. You're running training." Ghost chuckled and MacTavish put his head on the table sighing. There was no way getting out of this, he did owe him a lot.

* * *

**Hey guys! Sorry for not updating a couple of days, but I really had to study for a math test. I don't understand why I even bothered studying since I flunked it anyway, but whatever…**

**So that was chapter 17 :) I thought it was time for a little mission again, and I really enjoyed writing it this time. Probably because it wasn't as confusing for me to write, as the previous one.**

**It's summer holidays for me now, so I will be able to really focus a lot more on my writing. That will result in better chapters, since I think some of the ones I have written seems a little rushed, because I haven't always had much time to write.**

**But I hope you enjoyed and as always you're more than welcome to review :D**


	18. Chapter 18: Soap

**Just a little heads up! The A/N contains some important info this time, so I would appreciate if you read it.**

* * *

John had chosen it was laundry day for him, so he was walking around his room, picking up whatever seemed like it needed to get washed. He found a pair of socks under his bed, which were covered in a thick layer of dust. He walked away from his bed and shook the socks to make it come off. It formed as a cloud around him and he started coughing. Once the dust had settled he looked at the socks and smelled them. They weren't grimy and they didn't smell so they were probably okay, no need to wash them.

He picked up the rest of the clothes which was scattered around the room. He took a look around and decided he would need to clean it later. Compared to for example Ghost's room, this was a disgrace. Ghost's room was the neatest in the entire base. Everything had a place and there was no dust to be seen anywhere. John thought about, that Ghost might be cleaning 24 hours a day, which would explain why he spent so much time in his room.

He shook his head at the mess and walked out of his door. He made sure to close it properly; he didn't need anyone lurking into his room. He walked down the hallway until he reached the door to the laundry room. He opened it up and walked up to a machine. He sighed at thought of having to separate the clothes. To be honest he didn't give shite, because if you wash it enough, it just stops changing color.

He turned around as he heard the door open. It was Ghost, neither of them said anything to eachother, they just nodded. Ghost had finally got rid of the cane, but he was still limping a bit. John watched from the corner of his eye, as Ghost started separating his clothes and carefully put it into the machine. He measured up the soap very precisely. At things like this they were complete opposites. Ghost was very careful about measuring everything perfectly, while MacTavish just thought it didn't matter and just put in what he thought was good.

The machines started washing and the two men just stayed quiet. It wasn't always, that there was any need for words between them. Most people would have found the silence awkward, but to them, it was comfortable.

"You do know that, that thing you just did with the soap is going to turn into a horrible disaster right?" Ghost said quietly while keeping an eye on his captain. MacTavish sighed and shook his head.

"I've done that before. It hasn't done anything since one time several years ago. I learned my lesson there." He said as he thought back. That was what you could call a disaster. There was soap everywhere and he had got laughed at for it. Not just a little bit, but a lot.

"If you're confident in it, then okay mate." Ghost said as he shook his head and they returned to silence for a while. "Can I ask you something?" Ghost said. MacTavish nodded. "Do you have a call sign? And if you do, then why don't you use it?"

John sighed; he had been waiting for that for a long time by now. He was just happy that it was Ghost who asked and not someone else.

"That was two questions, but yes I do have one and second, it's boring and the story behind it, is embarrassing."

"How bad can it be?" Ghost asked curiously. John thought about it for a second and came to the conclusion that it couldn't hurt telling Ghost. Rather him than anyone else.

"If you must know, then it's Soap."

"What's so bad about that?"

"You don't know the story…"

"Then tell me." John started regretting that he had ever said anything. The last time he used his nickname, was when he was in Price's team and that was 5 years ago. He had told Price what his call sign meant and the old man had laughed so hard at him. Everyone else but him had a call sign that had some sort of interesting meaning. But then there was him, Soap, really?! Out of everything else, that was what people chose.

He sighed and looked at his friend "Fine, but if you ever tell anyone, I'll kill you." Ghost nodded and leaned up against the wall as MacTavish begun his story…

* * *

_It was 7 years ago, when I was in the S.A.S. It was the team I was in right before Price's. I ended up transferring there 2 months later, because they thought I was too good to be stuck at the other team._

_I had never really had a lot of friends in that team. Most of them were arseholes and I was only around them because I had to. I mean, there wasn't really any avoiding them. However my captain understood me and he usually didn't mind me being on my own. But back to the point._

_I needed to wash some clothes and I wasn't a 100% sure how to use their machines since they had just got new ones. It didn't make it better that I had more clothes that needed washing than usually that just made me even more confused. But I ended up putting more soap in the machine than I used to do. I thought I might have put a little too much in, but it couldn't hurt._

_I left the room and went to do some shooting practice, while the clothes were being washed. After about 30 minutes I heard someone yelling so I went back inside. It followed the yelling and laughing and ended up at the laundry room. You could see foam coming out from underneath the door._

_I knew no one else was washing, so it could only be mine. If the others found out, I knew they wouldn't let it go and that I would have to hear for it, as long as I was on the team. At this point I had two choices. One, I could let them walk in there and find out it was my things, or two, take the walk and talk of shame and say it was my fault._

_In the end I knew it would probably just get worse if I let them find out for themselves. So I walked up to my superior and told him that it was me. He looked at me while I was explaining what I had done and as soon as I finished, he didn't even get mad. He just laughed at me. It wasn't exactly the reaction I had expected from my superior._

_But I ended up having to clean up everywhere the soap had went. So I ended up having to do several walks of shame as I went back and forth to get everything cleaned up. I made sure to avoid everyone the rest of the day to make sure I wasn't going to get made fun of. But every time I entered a room, people started laughing in the corners._

_A couple of days later I went to dinner. I was minding my own business sitting with the same people as always. We were a small group of people, who liked to keep to ourselves. We didn't really talk and we didn't bother eachother. It was just for company's sake._

_I started eating when someone started yelling. He was yelling soap at someone. At first I didn't think about it, because people hadn't really been doing anything lately. I was just thinking about what unlucky bastard had ended up being called that._

_The guy who had been yelling went up to me and put his hand on my shoulder and said "Hey Soap, the captain wants to speak to you after dinner." As I realized why he was calling me Soap, I felt like smashing my head into the table._

* * *

"From there on out, I was called Soap, by most people. Price's was the last person to know what my call sign meant, because after that I just stopped telling people." He said and waited for Ghost's reaction.

Ghost's mask made it difficult to see, but soon he started shaking. The shaking got worse and he started saying weird noises.

"What?" John said as he looked at Ghost.

Ghost looked away for a second trying to stop himself, but after a while he couldn't anymore. He burst out laughing and he had trouble stopping himself. John thought to himself that he should have known that he would react like that. Everyone else had call signs after their skills or something they were good at or had accomplished. Some even a life changing event.

Ghost had his, because he was a master at stealth, Roach was called roach because he was a bitch to get rid of. Archer had his because he was such a good shot, Chemo had his because he beat cancer and the list continued. John on the other hand had his, because he was an idiot.

Ghost stopped laughing after a while and shook his head. "That's pretty bad!" He laughed.

"Oh really! I didn't know that!" MacTavish hissed.

"But it isn't the worst I've heard."

"Tell me something worse then!"

"I met a guy called 'Butt Plug' once." MacTavish lifted his eyebrow at what Ghost had just said. "What the bloody hell did he do to deserve that?" He asked.

"He had been out on a mission, and he ended up trying to flank some enemies. He ran up to a Tango, but he had seen him. 'Butt Plug' was surprised as the Tango was about to turn around, so he kicked him in the arse. It ended up with his foot getting stuck in between the Tango's arsecheeks. As his team mates showed up a second later around the corner, they started calling him butt plug. But the harassment from his team didn't stop there. One day they were negotiating with some terrorists. They were holding people hostage in a building. Butt Plug's teammates told the terrorist that, if they gave them their butt plug, would they let the people in the building go." Ghost said as he started chuckling.

MacTavish couldn't stop himself anymore and burst out laughing. That was a pretty bad call sign.

"I told you there were some, which were worse than Soap."

"Aye I see. But I would still appreciate if you didn't call me Soap."

"Of course mate."

"Thanks."

MacTavish sat down on the floor and closed his eyes as he decided he could just as well stay until his machine was done. Ghost decided to do the same.

John didn't know how long he had been sitting on the floor since he fell asleep, but he woke up to Ghost laughing and calling his name. He opened his eyes and looked over at Ghost who was standing at the door with his clothes in a laundry basket. MacTavish took a look around and was confused by what he saw.

He was sitting in a sea of something white and wet. It took a couple of seconds before he realized what had happened. He started swearing and yelling at himself as he saw the foam filling up the room.

Ghost laughed and walked away leaving MacTavish to handle himself. A few minutes later, after he had managed to save his clothes, Meat and Royce walked by.

"What the fuck happened in here!" Meat said as he looked at the floor.

"Do you have some troubles washing cap'n." Royce said with a smirk.

"NO! AND BECAUSE YOU TWO IDIOTS SAID SOMETHING, YOU'RE CLEANING IT UP!" John yelled as he walked out of the room, leaving Meat and Royce to clean up his mess.

* * *

**Hey guys I hope you enjoyed the chapter :) "He was sitting in a sea of something white and wet." I'm sorry for that line, it sounds so wrong now that I think about it xD**

**KoolKyo25 asked some question and I replied with long and thorough answers in a PM. If you guys have any questions you would like me to answer, like KoolKyo25 did, then please send me a PM. I don't mind answering questions, so just send them to me if you have any :) You can as me whatever you want, CoD: MW Related or just random stuff, and I will answer (as long as it's not too personal).**

**I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and as always you're welcome to review :)**

**P.S: I need you guys help. As we get close to chapter 20 I thought I would do a special chapter. For me it's a pretty big milestone, so I thought it would be fun. **

**If you guys had the opportunity to ask the characters of the story some questions, what would they be? You can ask any of them anything! Write your questions in a PM or as a review!**


	19. Chapter 19: Clash

John had been sitting in his office thinking for the past few hours. He was supposed to get work done but he just couldn't get started. He knew Ghost would get mad at him if he didn't start doing his own paperwork. MacTavish had to admit he had been putting a lot of work on Ghost and that it wasn't exactly fair. The most of the things he ended up doing wasn't a part of his job description.

He looked down at the computer in front of him. The glow from the screen was starting to hurt his eyes so he closed the laptop. He took a look outside and he saw the moon starting to come up. It was getting darker by the minute and he found himself being in a trance as more and more stars showed up on the night sky.

He sighed deeply as he knew he would never get done with the paperwork. He started thinking about what would have happened if he was working in an office. Having to sit in a cubicle all day and going through a little mountain of paperwork. He would probably go insane and end up killing someone. The "normal" life wasn't exactly for him. But if he did have a cubicle job, he would probably have a wife and a kid or two by now. He started chuckling at himself. He would never be able to maintain a relationship with a girl for long enough to marry her. And kids… like that was ever going to happen.

He could never see himself as a father. Him having two children running around him, wanting to play games and things like that. But him having to sit still playing with dolls and action figures, that must be a joke. He didn't have anything against kids, but having some of his own, would probably be a nightmare. Now that he thought about it, he might have a couple of kids somewhere, if you thought about his… adventures… when he was off duty.

He opened his computer again, he needed to at least start the work and then finish it tomorrow, but again he just stared at the screen. He tried, but as soon as he fingers got close to the keyboard he froze.

John shook his head and stood up; maybe if he went outside for a couple of minutes, he could clear his head and then get started. He walked outside his office and closed the door. He went down the hall way until he entered the mess hall; he took a quick look around to see what everyone was doing. For some reason, the mess hall had been the place where everyone was, when they didn't have anything to do. It was only positive since it brought everyone together.

A smile started showing as he saw Archer trying to teach Toad something about hand-to-hand combat. Toad just stood there, not knowing what to do, while Archer explained and showed him how to do it. Hand-to-hand combat had never been Toad's strong suit, so now Archer had apparently taken it upon himself to teach Toad.

He opened the door and walked out to the porch. He put his arms on the railing and took a look around. He had never really taken his time to just stand and look around, but now that he did, he regretted he hadn't done it sooner. The base was quite beautiful at night, when the moon illuminated everything. But the best part of everything was how quiet it was. He had got so used to everyone screaming and yelling that he had completely forgotten how nice the silence could be. John started wondering if Ghost felt the same way. He rarely slept so maybe the silence was something bad for him. He decided that he needed to ask him, when he got the chance.

John turned around and walked back inside. He felt like his head was much clearer, so maybe he would actually be able to get something done. He opened the door to his office and noticed Ghost sitting by his laptop. John closed the door and sat down at the other side of the desk.

"I noticed you weren't really able to get started, so I started it for you." Ghost said quietly as MacTavish sat down. "You shouldn't have. You already do too much around here." John said as he watched his friend. It was strange how much different he was when it was just the two of them. He seemed to relax, but still he never let his guard down. Eventhough he wasn't looking at you, he was watching your every move and he was always one step ahead of one self. But it was also the only time where he would remove his mask.

"Ghost, may I ask you something?" John said. He watched as the lieutenant tensed up a bit. He had never been happy about people asking him questions, or people just trying to communicate with him in general. But after a while John got a small nod.

"What do you think of silence?" John watched as Ghost thought about his question. He probably had an answer as soon as John had asked, but he was choosing his words very carefully.

"It depends on the situation. Silence here is rare and therefore I would say comfortable. On missions it's usually a tense silence, because we have to stay quiet for as long as possible. But I like that kind of silence as well. For me it's sort of an adrenaline rush. However silence here can also be bad… it reminds me of a lot of things I'm just trying to forget… But why do you ask?"

"It was just something I was thinking about when I went outside. I have just been thinking a lot today and I have so many things I want to ask you right now, but I know you're not a big fan of questions." Silence fell over the room and no one spoke a word for a couple of minutes, until Ghost broke the silence.

"Ask them… and I'll answer as well as I can." He said. John was to say the least, surprised. He hadn't expected that from Ghost. For Ghost to say something like that, it must've meant that he trusted John more than he expected. He knew he would answer Roach's question, but they were usually more harmless. Ghost knew what kind of question John would ask and for some reason he still, he might not want to, but he saw it as a necessity to answer.

"I know it's a sore subject, but what do you think about family? Do you want to get a girlfriend, possibly marry her and have kids?" John asked. Ghost looked into the table. He probably hadn't expected something like that, but John had to know.

"I would never be able to maintain a stable relationship with someone. I'm gone most of the time and when I would finally be there, I would probably be called an emotionless bastard. But first I would have to find someone who would either be able to deal with me, or find someone who's just as fucked up as me. And what goes for kids, I don't think that is ever going to happen. I'm not stable enough to be able to take care of child, but my biggest fear would probably be that the kid would want to join the military as well. I would never forgive myself if it ended up being like I am…"

John had never thought about it like that, but he could see his friends point. If the kid ended up in the military, there was a chance of living through some of the same things as Ghost had been through. He understood that he would never want anyone else to go through something like that. Ghost was definitely one of the worst cases he had ever seen, of what the military could do to you.

"What would you do if you were fired from the military or if you retired?"

"I hope I die before any of those days come. I hope I'm not going to get fired, but that would probably take a lot of stupid things for that to happen. However I hope I die before retirement. There would be nothing for me, in a regular world; there is not really anyone for me to go to. And if I do end up having to retire because of something, I would no doubt kill myself. But I have a feeling I'm going to die during a mission."

John nodded, this conversation had taken more of a sinister turn than he had expected. He knew it would probably turn out to be a darker conversation than normal, but not this much. MacTavish started thinking, he had one last question he really needed to ask Ghost, but he didn't know if he wanted to know the answer.

"What do you think about Shepherd?" He asked carefully. He had a feeling Ghost didn't like him and his feelings came true as he saw Ghost going from somewhat depressed to really dark. He had this strange look on his face, which somehow scared John a bit. He had only seen him like that once before, and that was when he had told him about Manuel Roba. Ghost didn't even do anything to hide it; he just sat there for a while without saying anything.

"I don't trust him. Never have, never will. There's just something… unnerving about him. He knows too much, he has too many to back him up. If I had both him and Makarov standing in front of me and I was told I could choose to kill one of them. I would without hesitation go for Shepherd."

The words shocked John a bit. He didn't like Shepherd either but he was their commander and he had to trust him. He owed Shepherd for giving him this job. He could have given it to anybody else; someone way more qualified than him, but no.

"Don't you think it's a little too much mate?" MacTavish asked carefully.

"Don't tell me you don't find him off, somehow. There is something wrong with that man and you know it. He has way too much power to just do what he wants. He knows things about everyone that they thought only they had knowledge about. Trust me; he uses it against people to get his way. It wouldn't surprise me if he had spies everywhere."

"I'll admit he knows a lot of things that he probably shouldn't, but going as far as using it against people…"

"He already has. The day I took care of Roba, he was waiting for me. He knew everything about where I had been going and what had happened ever since the day we were kidnapped. He knew everything I had done."

"But he hasn't said anything to anyone. You owe him for not sitting in jail."

"The last thing I do is owe him anything. I have never told you this, but the only reason, why I'm on this team, is because he told me that, either I would get charged for murdering the scumbags I called my friends plus the blame for killing my own family, or I came here as a lieutenant. I never had a choice."

John was stunned. He knew Shepherd was a little shady, but he never thought he would do something like that. The weirdest part was that Ghost was always acting friendly towards him.

"Why would he ever do that? Are you sure that wasn't just some sort of dream? And if you hate him so much, then why are you always acting friendly when he's around?"

"You really think I'm lying to you?! Why would I ever lie about something like that? It wouldn't make sense! And the friendly thing, that is just acting. It's a part of the deal I made with him. No one was ever going to know, so I have to keep up a façade around him. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if he found out I have just told you about this. Don't be surprised if you find me assassinated or being hauled away in a couple of days."

"Ghost mate, come on. I don't like him either, but that is just conspiracy theories."

"I have seen enough people in my lifetime like him. At first they seem friendly, but then they betray you! That man is going to be our death, no matter if you like it or not! He has way too many connections and he has everyone in his pocket! But just go back to kissing his arse! I hope you two will be very happy together!" Ghost said and he stormed out of the room.

John sat there confused about what had happened. He had been discussing things with Ghost before, but he had never been arguing with him like this. He had always known he wasn't a big fan of Shepherd, but he never knew it was that bad. But the thought of Shepherd betraying all of them was insane. This was his team, why would he ever do that to them?

Shepherd was many things and most of them probably weren't good. But he would never go as far as taking out the team he had wanted to put together in the first place… Would he?

* * *

**Woop! Chapter 19 is finished. So I thought we needed a little drama between MacTavish and Ghost and what subject is better than Shepherd to create that? I have always had the feeling that Ghost knew that it would end badly with Shepherd, one way or another. Thank god there is a long way till that has to happen. It thought about slowly starting the real story line soon, but we're going to take it slow if we do. It don't want people to die yet…**

**Just as a little reminder, remember to ask your questions for the characters in the story as a review or as a PM. This is your chance to have an impact on a chapter and I need a bunch of them, so just send them to me :D**

**I hope you enjoyed and as always you're welcome to review :)**


	20. Chapter 20: SPECIAL! fireworks

**Hello guys, so I told you I decided to do a special as my chapter 20, so here it is. Don't worry though; I will upload a "real" chapter soon. To be able to make this, I had to do a lot of convincing, but I managed to gather some of the TF members! We have MacTavish, Ghost, Roach, Archer, Toad, Chemo, Worm and Angel. After an hour of pleading, they said yes to do this, SO I HOPE YOU APPRECIATE IT! So guys let's get started.**

**MacTavish:** First a question. How the bloody hell did you manage to get Ghost to do this?

**He couldn't deny me when I made the puppy eyes.**

**MacTavish: **I see. You going soft again mate?

**Ghost: **Shut up…

**Roach: **You are going soft. You're all squishy and mushy inside aren't you?

**Ghost: **Don't test me Roach; I'll make you train twice as hard.

**Roach: **Hey that's not fair!

**No one is going to be training harder than anyone else okay! So before we start with the questions from people, do you guys want to say something?**

**Roach: **Hello everybody! I've been looking forward to this! It'll be fun to see what kind of things you have come up with.

**Chemo: **QUIET PEASANT! We don't want to hear you speak. We all know that I'm the star of this. No one is more awesome than me! You can all call me king Chemo from now on.

**Toad: **Chemo you're such a wanker. Don't worry guys, he's always like that. As soon as he has the chance to be in the spotlight, he'll be there. Give him a little while, he'll calm down soon. But I'm Toad as you know; I'm Archer's spotter and his servant. ALL HAIL KING ARCHER!

**Archer: **Relax servant, they all know I'm the one to rule this show. Chemo is just like the kid, who has to get attention all the time.

**Chemo: **NO I'M NOT!

**Archer: **Yes you are!

**Chemo: **I'm so not!

**MacTavish: **Yes you are and you know it!

**Ghost: **Are we done arguing so we can get on with this? Let's just say that everyone is trying to get attention… Except me.

**Angel: **OH! Except you huh? 'Cause you're not the one trying to show off with muscles and things like that right now!

**Ghost: **Well we have to give the girls something. You guys look like five year olds…

**MacTavish: **Ghost, you're an arsehole.

**Ghost: **So are you.

***sigh* Are we done yelling at eachother?**

**MacTavish: **Aye. So you said people had made questions for us?

**Yup, but now that I have your attention, let's start with a question for you. How do you think Price would react if he saw how things were at the base?**

**MacTavish: **I don't even want to think about that. I mean, he's a stern old man who requires discipline and trust everyone to not fool around. If he saw how everything is around here, he would probably go cry in a corner and be very mad. Not at them, but at me for not being able to keep them calm. He would kill me… but I'm not him, so if doing weird and crazy things are everyone's way of keeping sane, then why not.

**Ghost: **But some pretty weird shite happens around here too! Remember that time where they were doing a competition about who was the best stripper? Or the time where they decided to stalk us around all day? Or the time wher-

**MacTavish: **I GET YOUR POINT!

**Wait what? Stripping competition? Why don't I know about that?**

**MacTavish: **Well you aren't around all the time and trust me, I'm scared for life from seeing what they did. It was horrifying…

**Who won?**

**Roach: **I did!

**Chemo: **Surprise…

**Hahaha, I could just imagine Roach winning that.**

**Roach: **What is that supposed to mean!

**Angel: **You're just so gay once in a while. So of course it's not surprising.

**Roach: **I'm not gay!

**Ghost:** Never said you were mate. Just said that you act like it once in a while.

**Worm: **You kind of do Roach…

**Roach: **Pfffffft.

**Aw Roachie, don't get mad.**

**Roach: **I'm not mad…

**Ghost: **Oh really…

**Okay next question since this is getting weird. But we were talking about weird and crazy things, so what is up with you Worm?**

**Worm: **Would you mind elaborating that question?

**Let's take the sleeping bag incident.**

**Worm: **…

**I think everyone wants an explanation of that!**

**Worm: **No comments.

**MacTavish: **You aren't getting around this one Worm! We want an explanation!

**Worm: **… I … Let me let you in on a secret. It never happened… SPOOOOOKY!

**MacTavish: ***facepalm* Worm… just… just stop yourself…

**Worm: **SPOOOOOKY!

**Okay, I think what we learned from this is, that Worm is just weird. A good soldier, but weird…**

**Toad: **yeah… not much else to say about him eh?

**Let's just take another question for Worm now that we're at it. What is your favorite animal, is it you?**

**Worm: **I'm always my favorite thing, so yes… always… always.

**Archer: **I think you're freaking people out Worm.

**Worm:** They are scared of the awesomeness that is me, you mean.

**Archer: **Sure… whatever bro…

**Chemo: **Okay everyone, I'll let you in on a secret here. He's always like that; he's so strange all the time. He never really says anything and when he finally does, he's weird as well. It never stops with him. He's a complete whackjob sometimes, but that's why we love him.

**Worm: **Love you too bro.

**Chemo: **Always bro.

**Ghost: **Can we talk about something else than Worm now? This is getting a little weird…

**Just my thoughts. So what about a question for you Ghost? So what is the official explanation of your call sign?**

**Ghost: **It's pretty easy. It's because I've been working with stealth, basically ever since I joined the military. It has always been easy for me, so people started calling me Ghost.

**MacTavish: **Also because you have a tendency of disappearing and reappearing at random moments.

**Roach: **And because you're always sneaking around.

**Toad: **And because you are always right behind people without them noticing.

**Chemo: **And because you always seem to be everywhere at once. You hear and see everything.

**Ghost: **I THINK THEY UNDERSTAND NOW!

**Chemo: **Just making sure.

**Okay another question to Ghost!**

**Ghost: **Bloody hell! How many are there?

**This one and another one, so you're almost done okay! But the question is what do you think of MacTavish? Do you find him responsible in the field and at the base?**

**Ghost: **He's basically my best friend. But that doesn't mean I always have to like him. He's a bloody wanker once in a while and I feel like punching him in the face sometimes. The fact that I haven't done it yet is because he's getting good at avoiding me when he's an arsehole. Do I find him responsible… yes I do. He does his best for the team and when we're in the field, he makes everyone focus on the target and he would never leave anyone behind. It's the same thing here, so yes I would say he's responsible. He hasn't done anything too stupid yet. Emphasize on yet.

**MacTavish: **Awwww, thanks mate.

**Ghost: **Okay maybe the time where you got the entire base shitfaced, that might have been a bit irresponsible, but what the hell. We have to have fun as well and he was the least drunk of everyone.

**MacTavish: **Everyone was bored, so someone had to do something.

**Yeah that was definitely interesting… I really liked what happened with Meat and Royce. Do you guys think they have something going on? If you know what I mean…**

**Archer: **It's definitely a possibility. Roach, Angel, you guys must know something. You share a room with them.

**Roach: **I'll say they're… strange… once in a while. Angel do you remember that time where we walked into our room and they were sitting really close laughing and stuff?

**Angel: **Yeah and then they acted all awkward when they saw us…

**MacTavish: **GAAAAAAAAAAY!

**Ghost: **You're such a child…

**MacTavish: **What? If they're together, then I'm happy for them.

**They are probably together or else they just have a very interesting relationship… But MacTavish, people want to know what you do in your spare time. It seems like you're always working.**

**MacTavish: **I try to work, but it's not always that it goes too well, but in my spare time I usually read, drink or do everything I can to annoy Ghost. Usually it ends up being the other way around though. I've tried everything so far; I once tried to glue his face to his laptop, because he fell asleep with his face on it. He woke up though and he tried to kill me.

**Ghost: **What about the women? You forgot to tell them about that…

**MacTavish: **I could say the same thing about you.

**Ghost: **No one asked and don't try and remove attention from yourself here.

**MacTavish: **Well… just shut it.

**Roach: **Those two always get all the girls when we're out. It's so unfair.

**Hahaha sounds… interesting, but I really don't want the details on that. Please? Okay time for a question for Roach. It's same as MacTavish's, what do you do in your spare time?**

**Roach: **Relax, annoy Ghost and MacTavish, try to not die when Meat and Royce thinks of something "fun", which could literally break our necks. Oh and watch cartoons, usually SpongeBob and things like that.

**Okay we have a roach question. Would you be able to live without your head?**

**Roach: **You would be surprised by how often people ask me that, but no I can't. It's pretty simple. Decapitating me would end up in massive blood loss and a human can't survive that. It would stop the oxygen transportation around the body and it would be impossible to get nutrients. I mean, I wouldn't be able to breathe since the brain controls that and I wouldn't be able to eat either, so that would result in starvation. A roach on the other hand can survive for weeks. They don't have a large network of blood vessels and so on, so they wouldn't bleed to death. Roaches are also cold-blooded so they won't need as much food as a human would. And the wound would begin covering itself pretty quick.

**You have done your research haven't you?**

**Roach: **Maybe a little bit.

**Okay we have a question for Toad now. It's about your call sign, because you do now it's from Mario right?**

**Toad: **It's just because I had a time in my life where I was playing a lot of Mario. People say that I'm always trying to help others out and attend to them and things like that, so the name Toad stuck.

**Archer: **Attending to people… you mean sticking your nose where it doesn't belong.

**Toad: **HEY! I'm just trying to help people out here!

**Archer: **Trying to help them out by poking in their business.

**Toad: **I do not!

**Archer: **Oh really!

**Toad: **You're just always acting strange and you never want to talk to me about it, so I have to do a little detectives work!

**Archer: **You snoop in things that don't belong to you!

**Toad: **BASTARD!

**Archer: **TWAT!

**Um… shouldn't someone stop the fight? Just asking…**

**MacTavish: **You two cut the shite! You can continue when we're done here!

**Thanks 'Tav.**

**MacTavish: **You're welcome.

**Okay question for Chemo. How did you get your call sign? Where you good at science in school or something?**

**Chemo: **Actually I sucked at it. It's because I lived through some cancer stuff.

**Roach: **Cancer?

**Chemo: **Yeah, it sucked and it took several years to become okay, but it was a little while ago now. I was told I was cancer free when I was 16 and from there on, I decided I wanted to be in the military so I trained to get back my strength and things like that, until I turned 18. Then there was a backlash when I was around 20, so I had to get chemotherapy. They thought it was all gone, but apparently not. So Chemo kind of comes from there.

**Roach: **Wow… I never knew that. Awesome that you kicked it's arse bro.

**Chemo: **Yeah it's feels pretty awesome.

**That's a cute story, I'm happy that you're okay now and you better stay okay!**

**Chemo: **I will, don't worry.

**Good. Now a question for Archer. Do you use bows and ribbons? You get it, bows and ribbons, bows and arrows? You get it? You get it? … I'll just shut up now …**

**Archer: **Actually I can use a bow. I was in minor championships when I was a kid and I was pretty good at it, still am to be honest.

**Worm: **Was that why you ended up as a sniper?

**Archer: **Aye. I have always been interested in sharpshooting and things like that. So the bow and arrow was replaced with sniper rifle and I definitely prefer the sniper rifle.

**Angel: **You have to show us one day. You usually don't mind showing off…

**Archer: **I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that and where do you want me to get a bow and arrows?

**Angel: **No idea. Make your family send it to you or some shit.

**Archer: **Yeah because of course it will be okay to send things like that across the country, when it's gear which can be used in hunting and things like that.

**Angel: **Then you come up with a better idea!

**Ghost: **Why does everybody keep fighting here?! It's bloody annoying.

…**grumpy…**

**Ghost: **I'm not grumpy!

**Really?**

**Ghost: **Yeah.

**Well excuuuuuuuuuse me, but you're just negative all the time. I now you're not exactly a happy guy, but you could at least try and show a little bit of interest and be a little bit positive. It's not that bad.**

**Ghost: **Hmpf.

**Now that we're on the subject of you, then why is you always torture everyone with your training?**

**Ghost: **It's not that bad. People just tend to complain a lot, because they're lazy and don't want to get up in the morning.

**Have you ever thought about, that it's not everyone who is as much of a machine as you are? I get that you're awesome and you can do everything, because you're Ghost. But everyone else is just humans… They don't have your god-like powers.**

**Worm: **Someone's getting their arse kissed.

**I'm so not kissing his ass. Come one, you have to admit he's pretty beast.**

**Ghost: **You're kissing my arse… and I kind of like it…

**Let's not talk about that, let's talk about your training again!**

**Ghost: **I think we have talked enough about my training. Who of us is your favorite?

**Archer: **Come on mate!

**MacTavish:** Aye, we don't want to know!

**Ghost: **You're just afraid that she's going to say me…

**Chemo: **I'm obviously her favorite…

**Toad: **NAH UHH!

**Roach: **She definitely likes me the best! How can't you like the sexiness that is me?!

**Worm: **HEY EVERYONE CALM DOWN!

**Thanks Worm…**

**Worm: **She definitely likes me the best.

… _**Oh god this is a disaster…**_

**Ghost: **Hey this started off with her kissing MY arse. She said I was god-like, that I was awesome and that I was a beast. I'm clearly her favorite!

**EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP! CAN'T YOU TAKE THREE MORE QUESTIONS AND THEN WE'LL BE DONE OK! Sorry for yelling, but MacTavish, why are you always so unlucky?**

**MacTavish: **I have no idea, I have always been very unlucky, but I must be doing something right since I'm not dead yet. Something bad just always happens to me, sometimes embarrassing and at other times it could have killed me.

**And that's why Ghost always saves your ass to make sure you don't die?**

**MacTavish: **Aye, I guess so.

**Ghost: **See she thinks I'm awesome…

**Ghost shut your mouth; it's not your talking time right now okay. This is to all of you okay? Do you know if anyone is a brony?**

**Ghost: **What the bloody hell is a brony?

**MacTavish: **I want to know that too.

**Roach: **A brony is someone who's a fan of My Little Pony and no they're not little girls.

**Ghost and MacTavish: **…

**Worm: **I think Neon and Pharaoh might be. I kind of walked in on them a couple of days ago where they were singing along to the theme song. When they noticed me they quickly switched over to some TV-show about sharks… It was awkward, so I just left.

**Angel: **I would never have thought those two were bronies, damn.

**Toad: **Yeah, but some way it makes sense, since it's those two who makes the most fun of people who watch it. They have just tried to make it seem like they don't.

**Roach: **We should totally annoy them with saying that we know their secret!

**MacTavish: **Some years ago now when I was on Price's team, I saw him watching some My Little Pony things as well… Is he a brony then?

**Archer: **Usually it's just with the series called Friendship is Magic, but that isn't that old, so Hipster Price I guess…

**Ghost and MacTavish: **What's a hipster?

**Worm: **You guys are impossible…

**Okay so Neon and Pharaoh are bronies and Price is a hipster bronie… that's fucking weird… I never thought that Price would… oh well. Last question guys and we're done, Roach, how would you describe Ghost?**

**Roach: **Arsehole, douchebag, sadistic, do I need to say anymore. But to be fair he's also a very good friend who takes his time to listen. He's always making sure I don't do anything stupid, so some kind of guardian angel as well. He's also feels kind of like an older brother sometimes…

**Ghost: **Sadistic… really?!

**Roach: **Your training's sadistic, sorry mate, but it is. We all feel like we're going to die every time we have to train. Like Shadow said, we aren't machines and we don't have god-like powers like you and MacTavish. WE ARE HUMANS!

**Ghost: **See now we're back at the thing with me being god-like and awesome and all that again. I'm telling you that it must be a sign…

**MacTavish: **Oh god here we go again…

**Ghost: **You never told us who your favorite is.

**I'm not answering that question. It would be mean plus this is supposed to be about you guys and not me.**

**Ghost: **Come on, they can take it.

**Archer: **I'm kind of getting interested too.

**Toad: **Me too.

**Angel: **Yeah, I'm getting curious as well.

**I'm not saying anything. My mouth is sealed; you'll never get it out of me.**

**MacTavish: **You do know they won't back down right?

**I know.**

**Chemo: **How can you not think I'm the best?

**Ghost: **Because you're not, I'm definitely the best! Everyone reading this, I'm the best right?! I'm bloody awesome!

**Archer: **No! Everyone come on, I'm the best!

**Worm: **You can't be better than the WORM!

**Roach:** I'M SEXINESS ITSELF! YOU CAN'T ARGUE WITH THAT!

**Ghost: **NO YOU'RE NOT!

**MacTavish: ** GHOST IS RIGHT! YOU AREN'T, BECAUSE I AM! THE CAPTAIN IS ALWAYS RIGHT AND I ORDER YOU TO SAY I'M THE BEST. EVERYONE MUST SAY I'M THE BEST!

**Toad: **IT'S NOT FAIR USING YOUR AUTHORITY LIKE THAT!

**Worm: **YEAH THAT'S NOT FAIR AND AGAIN THE WORM ALWAYS WINS, SO I'M KING!

**Angel: **EVERYONE JUST SHUT IT! NO ONE IS THE BEST! Roach is not the sexiest and no one is the most awesome or beast, you want to know why? It's because there's only room for one and that's ME!

**Worm: **COME ON MAN!

**Archer: **THE ARCHER IS THE BEST!

**Ghost: **COME ON EVERYONE! EVERYONE LIKES ME!

**Guys I'll just leave if that's okay? Thanks for answering peoples questions… it was fun? Thanks for your time? I'll just get going and leave you to it then… I hope you enjoyed this little interview thing, as always you're welcome to review. I'm just going to end this here before it gets to weird...**

**Worm: **NO THEY DON'T! YOU'RE AN ARSEHOLE!

**Ghost: **AM NOT!

**MacTavish: **I'LL USE MY AUTHORITY AGAIN! I AM THE BEST! AND EVERYONE AGREES WITH ME! EVERYONE REVIEWING TELL THEM I'M THE MOST AWESOME!


	21. Chapter 21: Making Up

**Before I start I just really need to say wow and thank you. I didn't think the special would receive that much good feedback. I'm very happy that you guys liked it :3**

* * *

John thought about the fight he had had with Ghost a couple of days ago. He knew Ghost wasn't a fan of Shepherd, but he didn't know he hated him that much. And all the things he had said… could it really be true? Ghost wasn't exactly a person who lies to people, especially not when it was something as serious as that. So if it was true, Shepherd was a whole new level of evil.

MacTavish had never really liked Shepherd either. There was just something about him that didn't seem right, but he had always just put that feeling aside. No matter what he was his commander so he had to respect and trust him, plus he owed him his job. The thing that had always disturbed him the most about Shepherd was the caterpillar on his upper lip. There was just something scary about it. Every time he saw Shepherd face-to-face, his eyes slowly wandered down to his mustache. Sometimes he wished he could just rip it off.

John hadn't talked to Ghost at all the last couple of days. It seemed like Ghost was avoiding him. When MacTavish entered a room he would leave, if they met in the hallway, he would just grunt and swear to himself as he walked away, while he avoided any kind of eye contact. Ghost was apparently a master in holding a grudge.

John had tried to find him and talk to him several times, but the man would just leave, or he was nowhere to be found. MacTavish decided to take another walk around the base to see if he could find Ghost. He really needed to talk to him and get everything cleared up. It was getting a little lonely, since he wasn't able to talk to his friend. Well he had Roach, but he was getting annoying, it was like he was gluing himself to MacTavish.

Every single time he thought he was alone, he could see Roach standing around the corners smiling and watching. Not just a normal smile, but one of those creepy ones that made him look like a serial killer. Then he would try sneaking up on him and John had to tell Roach that he still needed more stealth training. He would have to talk to Ghost about it, since he was the one to always go on and on about Roach needing it. However that would mean that he had to actually find Ghost first.

As he had taken his walk around the base, he still hadn't found Ghost. He had checked everywhere he could think of, every room in the base, outside the base, he had even checked their supply closet. But no, he had decided to disappear. John sighed as he realized there was only one way out now; he had to talk to Roach. He really didn't want to, but Roach always knew where Ghost was, or at least he had an idea.

He walked into the mess hall to see if Roach was there, he took a look around but he couldn't see him. "Angel! Do you know where Roach is?", "Yeah, he's in our room." MacTavish nodded and left the room. He went down the hallway and stopped in front of the door that led to Meat, Royce, Roach and Angel room. This would be the first time where he would have to stay there for an extended period for time.

He always felt uncomfortable around their room. For some reason he imagined, that when you knocked, smoke would come out from beneath the door and some sort of creepy music would start playing. Then a slot in the door would open and some sort of cult member would ask you for your offering of an infant's blood, a goat's leg and the heart of a virgin. Then you would be let into their evil and strange lair of doom.

John shook his head at his stupid thoughts and knocked on the door. Out of instinct he looked down awaiting the smoke, but nothing seemed to be happening. He heard someone moving around inside and coming to the door. The door opened and Roach greeted him with a smile.

"Hey sir, what's up?" MacTavish gave Roach a suspicious look "What?" MacTavish snapped out of it, "I need to talk to you about Ghost." Roach nodded and opened up the door so John would be able to come in. MacTavish took a look around inside, he didn't see any hearts lying around, and there was no bowls of blood anywhere, so he took a careful step inside. He heard the door closing behind him and it made him nervous. He didn't want to die so he could be some sort of offering to their Dark Lord of Doom.

"Sir, why is it that people always seem to be uncomfortable around our room?" John looked at Roach and decided to just tell him the way it was, "Your room is creepy. There are weird noises coming from it at night. And if we have to come in here, we sometimes expect someone to ask us for an offering of blood or something like that, so you can give it to your Dark Lord of Doom." Roach looked confused and then he just shook his head.

Roach walked over to his bed and sat down, "So? What do you want to talk about?" MacTavish didn't really know what to say. He didn't want to involve Roach in what they had been arguing about. "I got into an argument with Ghost, he got pissed and now he's avoiding me completely. I need to know where I might be able to find him, so I can sort it out."

"Really? Ghost got mad at you… wow. I didn't think that was possible."

"Do you know where he might be?" MacTavish asked annoyed. He didn't really care about what Roach was thinking right now. He just needed to find Ghost, he didn't exactly want the man as an enemy.

"Well, I guess that you've checked everywhere here at the base. I'm only telling you this, because I don't want him killing you in the middle of a mission or some shite like that. I have never seen him mad for an extended period of time, so you never know. There is this place not far from the base. If you walk for about 10 minutes Northwest you will come to this little shack thing. He might be there if he's nowhere else."

"Thank you Roach", "You're welcome." MacTavish quickly got out of the door and headed outside. He went in the direction Roach had told him and it brought him into the little forest surrounding the base. He had been walking for a while, when he saw the little shack. At the side of it he could see Ghost sitting on top of some boxes.

John knew there was no real reason to sneak up on him or trying to be quiet since Ghost most likely already knew he was there. MacTavish walked up to Ghost and leaned up against the wall right next to the boxes he was sitting on. It was completely quiet until Ghost broke the silence.

"Let me guess, the bug told you where to find me?"

"Aye."

"Looks like someone needs to learn to keep his mouth shut." John sighed before he said something.

"We need to talk about this."

"What is there to say? I told you how I felt about Shepherd, because you asked and I told you how he really is, but you didn't believe anything I said. It's as simple as that."

"It's not that I don't believe what you told me, I'm just a little shocked since I have never seen or heard about Shepherd being like that before."

"That's because he had nothing to pin on you to use for his own advantage."

"It's a possibility…"

"Again with the thing that you don't exactly believe me."

"Ghost, I believe you. You're the last person to lie to someone about something this serious. For me it's just hard to imagine. Especially with what you said about him being our death… Why would he take out the team he wanted to make?"

"If we get in the way of what he wants, I doubt he'll hesitate to get rid of us." Ghost said seriously. MacTavish was thinking about if Ghost was starting to loosen up again. He took a quick look at Ghost, but he could see that he was definitely still mad. John could tell by the way Ghost sighed every time he had said something. He could also tell by the way he tensed up every now and then, that made him look like he wanted to beat him up. MacTavish was sure that the only thing that kept him from it was that he was the captain.

They silence fell over them again. Ghost sighed and he just sat there looking out between the trees. John didn't know what to say, he really wanted to make up with Ghost, he missed talking to his friend like they used to. The feeling of Ghost being mad was terrible, especially because it took a lot to really make him really angry. The usual stuff with him threatening to kill the recruits and things like that was lighter things. But him being mad like this, he had never seen.

"Ghost I..."

"What?"

"Never mind. You would just think it's stupid anyway."

"Just tell me."

"What can I do to make you stop being mad at me? I mean, I'm sorry about not believing you at first, but I do now. You wouldn't lie to me about something like that."

"Apology accepted."

"You're still mad aren't ya? What can I do? I'll do anything."

"You do know that it sounds like we're married right? You remember that you owe me right."

"I'm basically forever in your debt. You've saved my sorry arse twice from death, so yeah." John could see Ghost smirking through his mask, he had an idea and he knew it was something he wasn't going to like. Probably something insanely stupid, or something really embarrassing.

"Oh I know exactly what you could do… and you did say you'd do anything." John got a little worried, what had he got himself into?

_1 hour later…_

_This is fucking stupid!_ John thought as he waited for Ghost to call out over the speakers. This was the most embarrassing thing he would ever have to live through. How was he ever going to earn back the recruits respect? But there was nothing he could do about it now, Ghost had made him promise before he told him the idea, so he had to. And if this was what it took to get his friend back, so be it, no matter how embarrassing it would be.

"Everyone needs to gather in the mess hall. You have 10 minutes." He could hear Ghost say over the speakers. John couldn't do anything but stand there as Ghost put the homemade sign around his neck. No one was going to forget this anytime soon.

"You know I'll get back at ya for this, right?"

"I know, but I just need to do this, I can't be mad at you anymore after this. You ready pup, it seems like everyone is in there."

"Let's just get this over with."

Ghost walked out first and joined the others so he would get the best view of everything. _Bloody wanker!_ John yelled in his mind. He could see everyone standing very confused as they looked at Ghost who was already chuckling.

MacTavish took a deep breath and walked in with his head down, so he wouldn't have to see the looks on every ones faces. He sat down on the floor and just bowed his head in shame. Ghost brilliant idea was to make one of those "dog shame" signs and put MacTavish on display. The fantastic sign Ghost had made said "I didn't trust or believe my best friend and oh yeah, I took a shite on the carpet."

Everyone started chuckling and MacTavish thought he could just as well go full out with the role as a dog.

"Woof." Everyone burst out laughing including Ghost. Meat was quick to bust out a camera; they would never let him forget this. He would only have to sit there for another 30 seconds or so, just as he had planned with Ghost. At least he had made sure to put a time limit on how long he would have to humiliate himself. Oh he was so nice wasn't he?!

John started counting down as there was only 10 seconds left before he could get up. Oh but he wouldn't just leave, he was going to try and win some of his pride back. As the 10 seconds had passed he slowly stood up and dusted himself off. He looked at Ghost who was still chuckling and he pulled of the sign. Apparently the others had known what he was going to do, because they slowly backed away from Ghost.

All of the sudden John sprinted towards Ghost and tackled him so they were both on the floor. He folded the cardboard sign and started beating Ghost with it. Ghost didn't give the reaction he wanted as he just started laughing again.

"Is the puppy mad?" He laughed as MacTavish beat him again and again. Ghost finally started fighting back and the two were struggling on the floor. The others looked at them and chuckled and sighed as they slowly left the room and therefore let MacTavish and Ghost to their fighting.

_Later that day…_

John was sitting in his office still recovering from earlier, he had an ice pack on his eye, as both of them had ended up with a black eye, but Ghost was lucky enough to be able to cover it with his balaclava and sunglasses. And both of them had several bruises all over their bodies.

There was a knock on the door and Ghost entered the room and sat down in a chair.

"Are we even now?" He asked and MacTavish just glared at him. "Almost, I still don't think I have got back at ya properly yet." Ghost nodded. They both sat in the silence for a little while. After a while Ghost put out his hand "friend again?" MacTavish sighed relieved, "aye, friends."

* * *

**Sorry about the wait. I know I told you I would make a quick update, but I got caught up in Skyrim. I basically didn't sleep for 48 hours and then I just passed out, so yeah…**

**To: somebody awesome and cod chick: Don't worry I already have it planned. How does a week off duty in the company of 'Tav, Ghost and Roach sound? Lots of touchy feely moments, where they connect and talk, but also fun times. It will probably last 2 - 3 chapters I think. I have a couple of ideas before I make that though, but it should be up pretty soon :D**

**And yes I do intend to follow the timeline in the games, but I will add my own little twist to it. I don't know about killing anyone yet, it's something I really have to think about. I have some ideas on what to do, but I have to think of ways to make it fit in. **

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter and as always you're welcome to review :)**


	22. Chapter 22: Attack of the Beast

John was outside, standing at the entrance to the obstacle course. It had been a while since he had last run it, so he thought it was probably a good idea. He had to pick out two weapons, a main and a side. He went over and picked up his beloved M4A1 and a USP .45. He checked the magazines and got ready at the entrance. He looked up at Ghost who was standing in observation with his stopwatch.

Okay that he had decided to run it himself wasn't entirely true. Ghost had more or less forced him to run it, since it had been that long. But seriously, he was the captain of the team; he didn't need to run the course. He was a captain for a reason, he knew his stuff. Unfortunately he couldn't really do anything about it. This was the only place where Ghost was his superior. If Ghost for some reason felt like someone needed additional training, even the captain; he had the power to make the person do so. No matter if they liked it or not.

He looked up at Ghost again and glared at him, which just resulted in Ghost chuckling. John got ready and took a deep breath before he ran into the course. He took down his targets with precision, with his bullets hitting the targets just as they popped up. He ran into the new area and knifed the target popping up in the doorway. He quickly went through the rest of the areas and sprinted to the finish line.

He walked up to Ghost in observation to hear his time. It felt like it usually did, so he had probably done well. His fastest time had been 17.96 seconds which meant he had beaten Ghost by 0.32 seconds. Ghost had never commented on it, it seemed like he didn't really care. When John had first met him, he thought he would be more competitive than that, but he had a feeling why Ghost didn't care. It was probably because he would be able to beat John's time no problem if he actually wanted to. It wouldn't surprise him, since Ghost was basically a machine. When he had a gun in his hand, he was a completely different person.

John remembered when he had first met Ghost. It wasn't exactly pleasant since the man had, to say the least, hated him. Within a day he had come to the conclusion that he was a born killer. There was no doubt that Ghost belonged in the elite. Even with the way he could see him standing now, he knew. He wasn't even keeping track of him anymore, but he still seemed so focused on whatever was on his mind.

"How did I do?" "Not bad, but it was a little slower than your best. You ended up with a time called 18.17 seconds." John sighed, he thought he was closer to his best, but then again it wasn't too far off. He had done as Ghost had requested, so he couldn't exactly complain.

"Am I done now?" John said staring at Ghost who shifted his weight over to one leg. MacTavish had a feeling he was smirking under that cursed mask of his.

"I guess you are, unless you want to tr-"

"NO!"

"Okay, then you're free to go."

John put all the gear back in its place and was heading back to base. He looked up into the sky and it started raining. _Fucking great… rain… _John thought to himself. He looked back at Ghost who was sitting on a bench near the course. He was completely sitting in his own world, but John decided it would be best to leave him alone. He had preferred being alone lately.

MacTavish arrived at the base and noticed the door to get in was open. How many times had he told them to keep the damn door closed? If they kept it open there was the chance of animals running inside. Even though they were all soldiers, most of them were terrified of something getting inside, but even that wasn't enough for them to keep the bloody door closed.

He stood there thinking about closing the door, but no. He was letting it stay open and then he hoped something would get in, so everyone could learn their lesson. He went to his room and closed the door. He went over to his closet and picked out a new shirt since the other one had got wet from the rain. He took a look in a mirror close by and looked at all his scars. Each one of them had their very own history. He sighed, looked away and put on the shirt.

He leaned up against his closet thinking about what he was going to do. For once he didn't have any paperwork to do, which could basically be considered a miracle. He lied down on his bed; maybe a nap would do him some good. It had been a while since he had just taken the time to take a nap.

_Later that day…_

John opened his eyes, sat up and yawned. He took a look outside, apparently it had stopped raining. He looked at the alarm clock next to his bed and saw he had been sleeping for 2 hours. He got up from his bed and stretched his back and decided to go to the mess hall.

As soon as he stepped foot outside of his room, he noticed something strange. Everything was so… quiet. He decided to go investigate and slowly made his way towards the mess hall. He stopped outside each room on the way, but there was no one making a sound. He came to the doorway which led to the mess hall and walked inside to see everything as it always was. Almost everyone was in there doing whatever they felt like.

John thought about the noise. Usually he would be able to hear people talk from the hallway, but it was like it was all blocked so you could only hear something from the mess hall. He shook his head at his silly thoughts and went towards the kitchen as he saw Meat and Royce.

"Royce! Why are you doing this to me?!" Meat yelled at the man he probably considered his best friend. Ever since they had got on the team, the two had been inseparable.

"I just can't do this anymore man!"

"Why not? What did I do wrong?"

"Everything! You just had to walk out there and talk to that guy!"

"What?! He didn't mean anything! Come on bro, don't do this!"

"I'm not sure I can be your bro anymore…"

"What? Just because I was trying to become friends with people outside the base?!"

"Yes, you cheated on your bro man… You cheated on me."

"He was just this random dude!"

"FOR YOU HE MIGHT BE! BUT WE'RE NOT BROS ANYMORE; FROM NOW ON WE'RE JUST… ACQAINTANCES!" Royce yelled as he ran out of the room crying. Meat threw himself onto his knees and looked into the ceiling, "WHYYYYYYYY!" he screamed while the tears was running down his cheeks.

John stepped away and looked at Meat, "What the fuck?" he whispered to himself as he continued towards the kitchen. As he came close to the kitchen door it swung open and Ghost walked out. The only problem was that he was only wearing his boxers and.

"Ghost mate, why are you almost naked?"

"I was just sitting in my room when I thought, why the bloody hell do I want to wear clothes? I'm too sexy to wear clothes, so I should show everything I have off. The next time we're on a mission, maybe our enemies would stop shooting at us and just look at me instead. Isn't it a brilliant idea?!"

"Um… okay… see you later?"

"Yeah, see you mate."

John looked as his friend walked away. What the fuck was going on? Where they pulling some sort of prank on him? If they were he wasn't having any of it. He wasn't going to let them win. He sighed and shook his head as he entered the kitchen. He went over to a cabinet and got a glass and then he went over to the fridge and pulled out some juice. He was about to pour himself a glass as he heard something weird behind him.

He put down the glass and juice and turned around. It was Nikolai and he was sitting on the floor with a big smile.

"Nikolai… are you okay?"

"MEOW! Pretty kitty wants milk!" Nikolai said in his heavy Russian accent. MacTavish's eyes went big as he listened to his friend.

"What?"

"Pretty kitty wants milk!" Nikolai said and he crawled over to MacTavish and went around his leg as he started purring. John took a step away from Nikolai and headed for the door. As he touched the door handle he heard Nikolai hissing and he turned around to see him leaping at him.

John's eyes shot open and he quickly sat up. He rubbed his eyes and thought about his dream. "What the fuck is up with my dreams lately…" He said quietly to himself. He looked at his alarm clock, it had been an hour. First there was the robot and now this! He could basically live with the Meat and Royce thing and the Nikolai thing, but why the hell did he have to dream that about Ghost?! That was an image he would never get out of his mind… _Fuck this… _he thought to himself.

He stood up to stretch his legs when he heard someone screaming and yelling. He ran out of his room and went to the mess hall, because it sounded serious. When he arrived people were running around with panic in their faces. He walked in trying to get to talk someone, but either they were running around or trying to stand on something while they were watching the floor. Before he could do anything Roach came his way.

"Roach what the bloody hell is going on?"

"It's in here!"

"What is?"

"The little spawn of Satan! It'll kill us all!" He screamed as he ran trying to find somewhere to hide.

"What the bloody hell happened in here?!" John yelled out. He was getting a little tired of not knowing what was going on, first in his own damned head and now this. The only thing he could see was grown men running from something he couldn't even see. He just saw they were all watching the floor and that was it.

"SIR! THERE'S A SQUIRREL IN HERE! IT'S FUCKING MAD! IT'S GOING CRAZY!" Meat yelled as he was trying to get away from the supposedly terrifying beast. As John heard it was a squirrel he couldn't stop laughing. It seemed like they got what was coming to them. He had told them a million times to keep the door closed, but they had never listened to him.

"Haven't I told you to keep the door closed?"

"We know! Sorry just help us catch THE FUCKING SQUIRREL!" Toad yelled from the other side of the room. John decided he should probably help them. He walked around the room scanning everything to make sure it didn't just slip past. He had walked all around the room, but he couldn't see it.

"I'm sorry but I don't-"

"What?" Chemo said worried.

"Chemo… it's on your back!"

"What?! OH SHIT!" Chemo started flailing with his arms while he was trying to get his shirt off. But the squirrel was too fast, Chemo was running around like a lunatic when the squirrel bit him, which caused him to run into a wall and fall over. The squirrel decided to go nuts as it started clawing his back.

"NO! AAAAAAAARGH!" Chemo screamed as the squirrel, presumably had tons of fun with his back. John got a little worried as the squirrel stopped clawing away on Chemo and decided to run around on the floor again. Apparently they hadn't lied as they said it was mad and crazy. He kept his eyes on the floor as he saw that the squirrel had found a new target, Toad.

It sped off after him and Toad took off at an incredible speed. _If he just ran like that in the obstacle courses _John thought as he saw the squirrel staring at Toad, who had managed to get himself cornered. The squirrel ran over and bit Toad in the ankles which caused the man, to come with screams he never though he would hear from a man. As he tried getting the squirrel away it started clawing his hands and then it took off again. This time with John as a target.

John started backing away from the squirrel which was looking directly at him. "Take it easy now…" He said quietly to the squirrel. "I won't hurt you…" He tried again, but the squirrel looked just as mad. All of the sudden it sped up and attached itself to John's chest. It bit him through his shirt and clawed up some of his neck and his cheek, before it jumped off him and ran away again.

"What the bloody hell is going on in here!" Everyone looked in the direction of the voice, to see Ghost standing there looking at them.

"Why are you three bleeding?" Chemo, Toad and John looked down and saw their battle wounds were bleeding. John sighed as he watched the floor and got closer to Ghost.

"It's a squirrel. It went insane and attacked us and now you're going to catch it!"

"Why do I have to?"

"Because you made me run the course and because you still owe me for the dog thing you thought was so hilarious."

"It was pretty funny."

"NO IT WASN'T! Now go catch the squirrel!"

"Alright." Ghost walked off and went for the door that led to the hallway.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get something; I'll be back in a second."

A minute had passed when Ghost came back, this time with a towel in his hand. He threw the towel on a table and went out to the kitchens. They heard him moving around and he came back with a bowl he had filled with water and a handful of peanuts which were still in the shell. He went over, took his towel and sat down on the floor.

He sat down the food and water in front of him and then he just sat there. Everyone looked confused at him until they saw the squirrel looking around the corner from a chair. He slowly put the towel to his side and he just sat there and waited. The squirrel slowly approached him while it was looking at the nuts and water. After a while it sprinted towards it and it started drinking from the water. After a while it started working on getting the peanuts open, and then it started eating it.

John and the rest of the team looked amazed at Ghost as he just there watching the squirrel. After it was done eating it started filling its cheeks with peanuts and then it stared up at Ghost, who slowly took hold of the towel. He moved it over to the squirrel and grabbed it and then he started drying it up since it was completely wet from the rain.

"Dude, you're like… the squirrel whisperer." Ozone said quietly. Ghost just shook his head as he stood up and walked towards the door. He walked out and put the squirrel on the ground and it ran off, presumably to its home. Ghost came back inside and cleaned up after himself.

"How did you do that? The squirrel just went ape shit on us and then you show up and it's like the cutest thing ever!" Chemo asked.

"Why do you think it went crazy? It comes in here where there are grown men everywhere who could kill it if you stepped on it. And then all of you start screaming, yelling and running, which wasn't exactly making it better. It was just panicking." Ghost said annoyed.

"Yeah, you're a squirrel whisperer, no doubt." Chemo said back.

"And by the way, you three should head for the infirmary and get your… manly wounds checked."

John glared at Ghost who chuckled and shook his head. Chemo and Toad walked towards John and they went for the infirmary. None of them said anything they just walked in silence. They opened the door to the infirmary where Doc was attending to Pharaoh who had fallen out of a tree and sprained an ankle. He looked at the three men and looked confused.

"What have you guys done?"

"A squirrel attacked…" John said quietly. It didn't take long before Doc broke down in laughter. John didn't blame him though. Usually Doc was taking care of battle wounds, so broken bones, gunshot wounds things like that and then of course the occasional stupidity wounds. But here they came walking in, with wounds from a squirrel.

After Doc had collected himself he waved the men over to three different beds where they could wait until he was finished with Pharaoh. All of the sudden a nurse walked in, she was pretty cute and the testosterones levels went sky high as they tried acting as manly as possible.

"What have you three done?" She said concerned as she saw the wounds.

"We were playing a knife game, but it went horribly wrong." Toad said. The nurse looked at them suspiciously since it was the stupidest excuse ever, but it was better than admitting what actually happened. Doc started laughing again.

"Don't listen to them Emma; they were attacked by a squirrel." The nurse called Emma took one look at them and laughed. John sighed as it was embarrassing. Emma took over at Pharaoh and then Doc came over and attended to their wounds.

_Later that day…_

John was sitting in his bedroom, thinking about the day's events when Ghost came in. He sat down on a nearby chair and leaned back. He looked at John and started chuckling.

"How's the neck after the squirrel attack?"

"Shut up."

" … is something wrong?"

"No why?"

"You've just been acting weird today…"

"I just had another weird dream."

"About the robot again?"

"No, this time it was at the base…"

"What happened?"

"Let's just say you were in it and it was weird."

"What did I do?"

"You were running around in your underwear, basically saying you were to sexy for clothes and that you wanted to see how enemies in the field would react to it."

" … Are you having a man crush on me?"

"NO!"

"Yes you are; you think I'm sexy huh?"

"Ghost… stop it…"

"I can't say I blame you; if I was you I would have a man crush on me too." That was it. John took his pillow and threw it at Ghost who was already running out the door, barely missing getting hit by the pillow.

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**Sorry for not updating for a while, personal problems.**

**I hope you enjoyed and as always you're welcome to review.**


	23. Chapter 23: Injuries

John was looking at his squirrel wounds in the mirror. It had been about 3 days since the little spawn of Satan had gone berserk in the base. The scratches were slowly healing, but in his opinion not fast enough, since it wasn't exactly the most… manly way of getting "injured". Since the incident, everyone had remembered to close the door; apparently the squirrel had left almost everyone with paranoia of it ever happening again.

The last couple of days had been hell. Ghost was flying of the handle constantly as everyone thought it was a good idea to hail him as the squirrel whisperer. Every time he entered a room they would yell "All hail the squirrel whisperer!" and understandably enough, Ghost was getting tired of it. John had been busy with trying to make sure Ghost wasn't going to kill everyone, which was harder than anyone could ever imagine. When that man found a target for his anger, he was almost impossible to stop. Usually it took a lot of yelling and orders to make sure John wouldn't have to call Shepherd about needing new recruits.

John had told everyone to stop it before someone got hurt, but clearly that wasn't working. He turned around as he heard someone running and then knocking on his door. He opened it up and was greeted with by a panting Chemo.

"Ghost is… Ghost is killing Meat… We need your help…"

"What did he do this time?"

"He asked Ghost, that since he was the squirrel whisperer and all, if he was able to go outside then sing and dance like Snowhite and then all the squirrel in the area would gather around him and sit on his shoulders and things like that…"

"What the bloody hell was he thinking?"

"I don't know… but please we need your help…"

John nodded and quickly went with Chemo to the mess hall. As soon as he entered he saw Ghost standing above Meat who was lying on the floor crying out in pain once in a while. Ghost was about to reach down to give the man another round when he noticed John. To be honest John didn't really care since Meat just got what was coming to him, but it was his duty as the captain, to make sure no one killed eachother.

"Ghost, let him go. I know he deserves it, but I can't let you kill him."

"I wasn't planning on killing him; I had a different sort of punishment in mind…"

MacTavish watched as Ghost picked up Meat and threw the man onto his shoulder. Everyone watched as he took Meat outside and went over to the flagpole. He took some rope which was lying around and tied Meat up; to make sure he couldn't move. He made sure to put it tightly around his arms, around his wrists which were put behind his back and of course around his ankles. He tied Meat to the piece of rope that was on the flag pole and hoisted him up until he was at the top.

"Dude you aren't serious are you?" Meat yelled down with a little bit of panic in his voice.

"See you in shall we say… 5 hours? Have fun up there!" Ghost yelled back as he walked inside again. Everyone took one look at Meat and started laughing. John couldn't stop himself from chuckling either. He thought about that you at least had to admit that Ghost was creative. Everyone began walking back inside as John could hear Meat yell.

"SIR! PLEASE HELP ME DOWN!"

"You kind of deserve it Meat. You should know by now to not mess with Ghost. It's your own fault."

"OKAY! I'LL TELL HIM I'M SORRY AND NEVER ANNOY HIM AGAIN! PLEASE HELP ME!"

John chuckled and left Meat to scream for help. He went inside and walked to his office. He went inside and stared at the little pile of paperwork. It wasn't much so it would be logical to get it over with now. John started thinking that since it wasn't that much, then he could just wait a little while. He sat down on his chair and pushed away the paperwork.

"You are the world's biggest procrastinator." John's head shot up and noticed Ghost standing in the doorway. Either he needed to announce himself better or they needed a 'Ghost Warning System', because he had just given him a minor heart attack. One moment he could be in the mess hall and a second later he's standing next to you. You never knew where he would be next.

"We need to give you a bell or something… You almost gave me a heart attack." That just made Ghost chuckle.

"So uh… what did you do to Meat before I showed up? Chemo said you were killing him."

"He's overreacting. I gave him a little bit of a beating; it looks like I have to give him more melee combat training. He's terrible at it…" Ghost said as he shook his head.

"You do know you're not allowed to beat the shite out of the recruits right? You're lucky it's me who's the captain."

"I know, but I just see it as 'Surprise Melee Training'. They need to be on their guard at all times. They might not know it exists, but I don't see why that's my problem. Maybe I should warn them by yelling, SURPRISE MELEE TRAINING and then punch them in the face?"

John couldn't stop himself from laughing and even Ghost was trying not to laugh. It got even worse as the phone began to ring and both of them knew they would have to be serious. John took a deep breath and answered the phone.

"This is captain John MacTavish of Task Force 141."

"MacTavish, it's Shepherd, I have a new mission for you."

"Yes sir, what can we do for you?" Ghost got up to leave because he couldn't stop laughing. He went out into the hallway and Chemo walked by.

"SURPRISE MELEE TRAINING!" Ghost yelled as he punched Chemo in the stomach. "Remember to always be on your guard!" he then walked away and left Chemo on the floor mouthing 'What the fuck?' to MacTavish. It took all the self-control in John's body to make sure he didn't start laughing. He then realized that Shepherd had been quiet for a while.

"What was that MacTavish?" _Oh shite… _John thought. He needed to come up with a good excuse.

"It's a new program we're running sir. It's where you yell 'Surprise Melee Training' at the recruits and then you punch try to punch them and they have to react and avoid being hit. It makes their overall reaction time better and is therefore very useful…" He waited anxiously for Shepherd to respond.

"Ok, that actually seems like a good plan. But back to the mission…"

_Later that day…_

MacTavish had just finished telling the chosen recruits about the mission. They were going to Kazakhstan to take down one of Makarov's Intel suppliers and then grab an ACS module on the way too. He had chosen, Archer and Toad as sniper support and possibly also to take down the target if they had a clear shot. And then he brought Chemo, Pharaoh, Scarecrow and Ozone as well. Ghost was staying at home this time, since they had to have a superior at the base. Plus he wanted him to hack into their systems and provide them with Intel while they were there.

He had also called Nikolai since they would have to leave in a few hours so they would be able to be there at night time and maybe it would make it a little easier. John looked over at Ghost who was already studying the blueprints of the base to make sure he knew everything about it.

They were sitting in the briefing room trying to get everything set before they would have to leave.

"Archer, Toad, take a look at this. With what we know about this guy, he is the type to walk around in the base's bigger rooms and outside, making it perfect for you two to take him down. There is a big hill right next to the base. It should be easy for you two to get there and you should have a full view of a courtyard and some bigger rooms." Ghost said as he showed Archer and Toad the pictures and the blueprints.

"Aye, the only downside of that spot is the wind direction. However, it shouldn't be something we can't handle." Archer replied.

"Do you have any ideas on good entry points?" John asked.

"Aye, they have a backdoor. You should probably expect it to be locked and there might be a couple of people guarding it on the inside. But it's in a secluded area so it might not be very many. It's the only other option than the front gate."

"Ok then it looks like we have a plan." John replied as he took one last look at the blueprint.

_Many hours later…_

Everyone quickly left the chopper Nikolai brought them in on so he could fly away before he attracted attention. They needed to do this fast but as quietly as possible, for as long as possible.

"Archer and Toad, get into position and tell me when you're there and ready."

"Aye, expect us to be there within 10 minutes." Archer and Toad ran off as quietly as possible to make sure the snow the crack too much. John turned around to the rest of his team.

"Ok, here's the plan. We pick open the back door and quickly take out anyone on the other side before they can warn anyone else. And then we go for the ACS module. Understand?"

They all gave him a quiet yes sir and they started moving. "Ghost you there?" "Yes sir I'm here. Just tell me when you need something." They got closer to the base, but they decided to move in between the trees, since it would minimize the risk of them being seen.

"Archer here, sniper support is now in position. We have a clear view of the courtyard and major rooms. We have a visual on the target and a clear shot. Be careful, the courtyard is full of tangos."

"Copy that. Do not take down the target before I give you a go."

"Copy that, standing by for your go."

They arrived at the back entrance Chemo hurried up and picked the lock. John slowly pushed open the door and peeked inside. He counted three tangos and signed it to Chemo. Chemo moved in next to him and they took down the three tangos. Scarecrow and Ozone moved in to hide the bodies and Pharaoh stacked up behind Chemo. When they were all together again John called for Ghost.

"Ghost we're in."

"Alright, you need to turn left and keep heading that way until you can see a long narrow hallway on your right."

"Copy that. You heard the man, let's go." John said and they started moving. They took down the tangos they saw on the way and hid the bodies. After a few minutes they saw the hallway. John who was in the lead took a quick look down the hallway and then pushed the team back.

"Ghost we have a problem, they have a security cam down the hallway. Can you do something about it?"

"Argh… Bloody hell! Worm I need your help; we need to make the security cams loop whatever they recorded about 10 seconds ago. You work on them not being able to see we're hacking into their systems and I'll make sure it loops. On 3 okay. 1… 2… 3… go." Ghost said to worm in the background.

"Give me 1 minute sir." Ghost said and John could hear him working as fast as he could. They had been standing there for almost a minute where they had to listen to Ghost swearing about how complicated their system was. It would have been hilarious if it wasn't because they were a little busy.

"We got it. It's looping and you should be good if there is any more we can fix it with the push of a button. At the end of the hallway there is a door. You need to get through that. That will lead you to a room that leads out into a small courtyard. The fastest way to the ACS is through there."

"Copy that. Everyone heard that?" Everyone nodded, "Let's go."

They went through the room and John peeked out through the door to the courtyard. There were 5 tangos walking around. He made Pharaoh and Ozone move up with him and they took out the tangos. They were late so they didn't have enough time to hide the bodies. They went through the only door they could see and entered the room with the ACS module. But that wasn't the only thing that was in there. The place was a goldmine. They had a computer open with more Intel than they had expected.

"Pharaoh, get on the computer and start downloading everything. This place is a bloody goldmine."

"Will do sir." Everyone started walking around to see if there was anything else of interest before they got the hell out of there. Pharaoh was done pretty quick and kept the USB-key in a safe pocket. They quickly grabbed the ACS and headed out.

"Archer here, we have a problem sir. The target has begun to move. If we don't take the shot within a minute, we won't have a clear shot anymore."

"Damn it! Copy that. Take the shot in 15 seconds, we're going to run like hell."

"Copy that, 15 seconds."

"Okay we need to run, go go go!"

They hurried out of the room and ran through the courtyard.

"Taking the shot." They kept running and they could hear people starting to yell.

"Target is neutralized; I repeat the target is neutralized. I would advise you guys to get the hell outta there! They're bloody pissed! We'll keep giving you support if you should be seen. Archer out."

They quickly ran through the hallways they had come in through. They ran through the narrow hallway and heard someone yelling. The bodies had been seen and John basically knew what that meant. It meant, welcome to the shitstorm of tangos who would be running down the hallway in a second. They decided it would probably be best to run and then just take down tangos if they got in their way. They didn't have enough people to stop and wait.

"Nikolai, we need immediate extraction!"

"Da, I'll be at the EZ in 10 minutes."

The five men ran to the back entrance only to find several tangos positioned there. They took them down as quickly as possible and sped out through the door. As soon as they got outside they saw a large amount of tangos chasing them. The heard several gunshots and when they looked back they saw several of the tangos going down. However it seemed like every time someone went down, two new arrived.

"Sorry sir. We've done what we can. We have to head for the EZ." Archer said over the comms.

"It's okay, just hurry to the EZ. We'll need covering fire from there."

"Copy that sir. We're on the way."

After a few minutes they all arrived at the EZ and Archer and Toad quickly started firing to at least take care of some of them. John joined Archer and Toad while he made the others get in the chopper that had just arrived.

"GET YOUR ARSES IN! GO GO GO!" He yelled at them while they hurried in. "ARCHER! TOAD! GET IN!"

"SIR WHAT ABOUT YOU?" Toad yelled back

"I'LL BE THERE IN A SECOND, NOW GO!" He yelled back. The two men looked at him like he was insane. He knew it was stupid, but he had to make sure everyone got in safely. Toad was the last on to get in, but as soon as he had got it, John saw someone firing at him. He quickly moved and pushed the man out of the way and he heard a large amount of bullets hit the chopper wall close to Toad. He then quickly got in the chopper himself and they took off.

Toad was in his seat panting, "thank you sir… I would have been dead if you hadn't…" John just looked at the man and gave him a little smile, "Don't mention it, but are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks to you…"

_Many hours later…_

They were back at the base. They had been there for about 30 minutes and John had done all the usual things. Told everyone that they had done a good job and he had quickly called Shepherd to tell him how it went. He then made Ghost send all the Intel they had gathered.

He hurried down the hallway and opened the door to his room. He hadn't even got his gear of yet. He went over to the mirror he had in his room and slowly removed his jacket and vest. He looked at the wound that was bleeding at the hole in his shirt. He pulled of his shirt and examined the wound. It didn't look good, but there was no way he was letting anyone know he had been hit. The bullet had luckily enough not penetrated him, but it had been damn close. Instead he had got a long gash across his ribs, moving around to his back. He got a bowl he had out in his bathroom and filled it with soapy water and then he got a towel.

He went back to the mirror and dipped the towel in the mixture of hot water and soap. He then put it on his wound. He needed to clean it before it got infected with something. As he had got most of the dried blood away he saw how bad it actually was. He needed to stitch it up if he wanted to make sure it was okay. He went over to his drawer and pulled out some string and a needle. He threated the needle and took a deep breath.

He put the needle through the skin and groaned. It wasn't exactly comfortable. He took a deep breath again before he continued. He continued like this until he had finished half the wound. He wasn't a doctor, but he had to say that he wasn't bad at stitching up himself. He thought about what Doc would do, if he saw him doing this. He would probably kill him.

John was about to continue working on the wound when he heard the door open. He turned around as fast as his body would let him and of course it was Ghost. He sighed, walked in and closed and locked the door behind him. He pulled of his mask and John could see the worried look on his friends face.

"John… what the bloody hell happened on that mission? You're standing here stitching yourself up and Toad looks shook up. There's something you haven't told me." Ghost said softly while he looked at the bloody towel and water and the needle in his hand.

John looked at his friend; he only called him John when he was very serious. And he had never heard that soft tone from Ghost before.

"It was just when we were getting on the chopper. Toad was the last one to enter before me, but as soon as he took a step inside someone fired at him. I pushed him out of the way…"

"… and got yourself hit in the process. So you basically saved the kids life?"

"Aye, I guess…" Ghost nodded and walked up to John. He took the needle out of his hand and got down on one knee and continued stitching him up. John looked at how steady Ghost's hands were, it was weird how he could tremble one second and the next they were entirely steady.

Ghost finished stitching up his captain pretty fast and then went out to the bathroom. He came back few seconds later with bandages. John didn't say anything as Ghost bandaged him up. As soon as he was done John tried to start cleaning up. He went over to the towel and started bowing down, but then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"No, you go rest. You need it; I'll take care of this."

"Ghost…"

"I'm not going to let you discuss this with me. You need to rest, I'll help you lie down, come on…"

John let Ghost follow him over to his bed. Ghost put on arm under his and he slowly got down. John kicked off his boots and lied down and he watched as Ghost walked away.

"Ghost… Tha-"

"You're welcome." John sighed and closed his eyes; it didn't take long before he felt the darkness embrace him.

* * *

**I hope you guys enjoyed and as always you're welcome to review.**


	24. Chapter 24: Off Duty

John chuckled as he could hear Ghost's loud footsteps behind him. He was so screwed if Ghost caught him. He burst through the doors of the mess hall with Ghost right behind him. The guys sitting in the mess hall watched confused as they ran around. Ghost had been chasing him for about 5 minutes now and it didn't seem like he was going to get tired any time soon.

* * *

_10 minutes earlier…_

_John was walking out of his room and he hid the pillow he had just taken behind his back. He walked to his office and put the pillow up against the wall, out of sight. A few seconds later Ghost came walking down the hallway. _

"_Ghost, we need to talk… it's important." Ghost looked confused, but he walked over and stood at the doorway._

"_Is something wrong?" Ghost asked concerned._

"_It's just… you do know that um…"_

"_That what?"_

"_That you're … MY BITCH!" John yelled as he hit Ghost in the face with the pillow. He had hit the other man so hard he was knocked over. John didn't waste any time as he sped out through the door laughing with the angry Brit not far behind him._

* * *

"THE BRITISH ARE COMING!" John yelled as he ran through the door that led outside. The two men left the others completely confused inside. John ran through the tall grass and took a quick look behind him. He couldn't see Ghost's face, but he knew he was mad. It wasn't because it was hard to tell, with the yelling and swearing from the other man.

"MACTAVISH GET BACK HERE YOU SLIMY CROTCH GOBLIN!" Ghost yelled as a confirmation of John's thoughts. _That was a new one… _John thought to himself as he tried to outrun Ghost. However the other man started picking up speed and John knew that he would probably just end up receiving Ghost's fists of fury. All of the sudden John stopped hearing the other man's footsteps and it felt like everything was in slow motion.

John turned around and he saw Ghost jumping into a tackle. Instead of moving out of the way he just quickly covered his face with his arms and within soon he was lying on the ground with Ghost on top of him. They were both panting from the chase and John couldn't stop laughing.

"Slimy crotch goblin? Really? That was new."

"I was running out of insults…"

"What are you going to do? You can't beat up your captain." John said with a smirk on his face, but he could see Ghost was smiling evilly through the mask. He stood up and looked down.

"I guess I can't, but don't worry I have something different in store for you. Not for now though I need to plan my attack, so you're free to go. But if I were you, I would sleep with one eye open." Ghost said as he moved away. John sat up and looked confused at his friend as he walked away. After he realized that Ghost had said he had something planned, he got scared. Everyone knew that Ghost was the one at the base who could come up with the evilest pranks.

Everyone was terrified of Ghost getting into the mood of pranking people. That was usually also one of the reasons John didn't do anything to Ghost most of the time, but also because they were a great team. When they worked together on a prank nothing could stop them and the others always said it was unfair because they were the best.

One of Ghost's evil pranks had Pharaoh as a target. Somehow he had managed to completely shave off pharaoh's hair and his eyebrows without waking him up. Pharaoh was usually a very light sleeper, so no one could figure out how he had done it. Maybe it had some chloroform involved… But when Pharaoh woke up that morning the entire base knew. There had been loud yells and screams of terror from Pharaoh's roommates and yells and screams of anger from Pharaoh himself. No one ever found out what Pharaoh had done to deserve it, but John had overheard him talking to Ghost about calling a truce and that it would never happen again.

John got up from the grass and made his way back to the base. He entered through the door and took a quick look around to see if Ghost was there, when he couldn't see him he sighed in relief and went to his office. From now on he would have to be on guard all the time, he couldn't let Ghost near him without watching his every move. He sat down and opened up his laptop just as his phone rang

"Captain John MacTavish."

"MacTavish, it's Shepherd. I've been thinking for a little while and I have to say your team has done very well lately."

"Thank you sir."

"What would your boys say to a week off duty?"

"They would probably be very happy sir."

"Good then it's settled, your week off starts from tomorrow and try to get everyone off base, it's not healthy staying there all the time. And tell your men I'm satisfied with them."

"I will sir, thank you sir." MacTavish hung up on Shepherd and then he told everyone to gather in the mess hall for important information. He walked in to see everyone already there. They looked at him when he walked in and he stood in front of them.

"I just got a call from Shepherd. First he wanted me to tell you that he thinks you're doing a good job so far, he seems very satisfied. And from tomorrow we have a week off duty and he also told me that everyone should get off base." Everyone seemed happy about the information, everyone except Ghost and for some weird reason Roach. He had never seen Roach look like that. As everyone began to walk away John waved Ghost and Roach with him to his office. The three entered and sat down.

"You two don't seem very happy…" John said carefully to the two men. He could understand Ghost, but even he must have something to do off duty. He couldn't just stay at the base all the time, he needed to get away so he wouldn't go crazy.

"You know me, nothing to go home to, so no reason to go home." Ghost said quietly.

"I just don't want to go home…" Roach said quietly. John and Ghost turned their heads to Roach. Whenever the young man talked about his home he always seemed happy, so why didn't he want to go home?

"Why not? You always seem so happy about home." John said to his friend.

"I have my reasons; it's not something I want to talk about right now." The two men looked at the younger man, Ghost just nodded and said fair enough, but John was curious.

"You don't seem very happy about the situation either…" Ghost said quietly. John nodded, he was actually not very comfortable about going home either. He had his own reasons as well. The three off them sat in the silence for a little while until Roach spoke up.

"I have an idea… It's only if you guys want to!" Roach said.

"We can't decide if you don't tell us mate." Ghost said.

"What about we make a pathetic off duty group. None of us wants to go home for one reason or another so what about the three of us just stick together. We can rent a house or go to one of our houses if it's far enough away from other people."

"I like that idea, but I live in the middle of a city." John said.

"So do I." Roach replied.

"Then we're going to my house. I own a house in a forest 30 minutes away from any major cities. It's big enough for everyone to have their own room and it's cut off from everything else, but it's not that hard getting into town either." Ghost said.

"Then it's settled." John said to the two men.

_The next morning…_

John watched as the team got picked up by the bus that would drive them into the nearest city so they could do their own thing from there. The only people left at the base now were him, Ghost and Roach. He went to his room and opened his bag, he checked if he had remembered everything he might need and when he was satisfied he went out and locked the door. As he got out of the door he saw Ghost and the two men walked down the hallway and met up with Roach.

Ghost walked up to a garage outside and went in to get his car. There was three garages in total, one for the superiors and two for the team's cars. So cars so people could go into the small town not too far from the base and then also for a couple of jeeps. The men threw their bags into the trunk of the car and got in. Ghost started driving away from the base to begin the long drive to get to his house.

"So this house of yours we're going to, will you force us to do spring cleaning since you're never there?" Roach said worried.

"No, don't worry mate. I have people who maintain it for me while I'm away."

"Isn't that expensive as shite? And then just paying off the house in general. Are you on some kind of special salary we don't know about?" John asked kiddingly.

"I don't have to worry about paying off the house since my grandparents did that and I inherited the house from them. They bought it, but I only think they came there twice or something like that. And I don't have to worry about the money for the upkeep since they also left me with a fair amount of money. They won a big amount of money in the lottery. And before you ask then it didn't go to my parents since they didn't write them in their will. They only put me and my brother in and since he's dead, it went to me."

John and Roach nodded since they could feel Ghost didn't feel like talking too much about it. John looked out of the window and took in the scenery. Most of it was just fields and trees and then the occasional cow. John looked back and saw that Roach had fallen asleep, that explained why it had been quiet for the last couple of minutes…

_Several hours later…_

"ARRRRRHHHHHGGGG! WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" Ghost yelled out and John's and Roach's eyes shot open as the car started drifting left and they both started screaming only to find the car stopping and Ghost laughing like crazy. John and Roach looked at eachother and then to Ghost, first they were a little confused, but then they realized what Ghost had just done.

"That never gets old! You should have seen your faces!" He said in between his laughing.

"I fucking hate you… I hate you so much…" Roach said from the backseat

"We're here by the way… that was hilarious…" He chuckled.

John and Roach glared at Ghost as they got out of the car and got their bags. Ghost couldn't even look at them at them without chuckling. John took a look at the outside of the house; it seemed like a nice and cozy place. They walked up to the front door and Ghost let them in. It was decorated exactly how John had imagined. It had what was necessary for it to not look empty. It was exactly like his room at the base. Ghost wasn't one to care a lot for decorations and such, but he did have a few pictures on the walls and a couple of knick knacks here and there.

There was one picture that caught John's eyes though. It was with a woman, maybe in her mid-fifties, then there was a couple of years younger Ghost and then a man that looked like he was a few years younger than him. It didn't take long to figure out it was Ghost's mother and brother. Ghost and his brother looked like eachother and Ghost had his mother's eyes and hair color while his brother was more blondish.

"That's mum and Tommy, after he had got off the drugs… Mum decided that she wanted us to have a photo of the 'good side' of our family, which is also why Frank isn't there…" Ghost said quietly. John nodded and so did Roach who was now standing next to him. John now noticed that when Ghost talked about his family, he rarely spoke of his father as dad; he always just called him Frank.

The three men stood at the picture a little while longer until Ghost came with a loud sigh and walked away. John and Roach followed him up the stairs and into a hallway.

"You two can take those two rooms and mine is right over there. You have your own bathrooms by the way. I'll give you the grand tour later." Ghost said with a little smile, he had definitely become sad from looking at the picture of his family and having to talk about them. John hadn't meant for it to be like that, his curiosity had just taken over. He watched as Ghost walked into his room and closed the door behind him.

John and Roach separated and went to their rooms. John opened the door to a nicely furnished room. He took a look around the room and he was certain this was more of Ghost's decorating. It had what it needed and not too many decorating items. He put his bag on the bed and started unpacking into the dresser. After about 15 minutes John heard a careful knock on the door.

"Come in." He said already knowing who it was. He looked over at Roach who came in and sat down on the bed. John continued to unpack while Roach just sat there not saying anything. "Do you think he's okay sir?" Roach said carefully. John knew it was about the picture and to be honest he felt bad for making Ghost talk about it.

"Yeah, ya know he's a little touchy about his family. He just needs a little time and you don't have to call me sir, we're off duty. Just call me John." John said and smiled.

"Okay sir… John…" Roach said with and awkward smile. John shook his head at his young friend, what the hell were they thinking when they recruited him? He remembered that he and Ghost had talked about that he had to have got his rank somehow and he was a talented kid, he wasn't going to lie. The problem just was that he was still a kid, he felt bad for knowing what the 141 was probably going to do to him.

His thoughts were interrupted by another knock on the door. Ghost walked into the room and he was unmasked. "So what do you guys say to that tour?" He said with a little smile. The two men nodded and followed Ghost out of the room. They went downstairs and started with the living room.

"Well you've already seen the living room so we can just continue to the kitchen." They followed him through a door that led to a medium sized kitchen. "This is the kitchen, if you feel like cooking something then try not to burn it down and you can just take whatever you want. I don't give a shite." He led them through an arch in one end of the kitchen, "Dining room, I never use it though." He walked back to the kitchen and opened up a narrow door, "this is the basement, that's where I keep the bodies." John couldn't help but chuckle when he saw Roach's concerned face.

"By the way through that door there is another bathroom and through that door is the laundry room." He pointed at the two doors in the living room from his kitchen. He then walked over and opened a door that led outside.

"Back yard or forest or whatever you want to call it. The entire forest is basically my backyard." The men walked inside again and Ghost leaned up against a wall and went quiet for a second. "About the door next to my bedroom, then I would appreciate if you didn't go in there…"

"Of course mate." John said and Roach nodded. He didn't know why Ghost didn't want them to go in there but it was probably because of some personal things. It wasn't something he was going to make him talk about, if he wanted them to know, he would tell them. Ghost gave the two a little smile before walking over to the fridge, taking out three beers.

"Want one?" He asked them and both John and Roach accepted it. The three men went into the living room and sat down.

"So bodies in the basement huh?" John asked Ghost kiddingly.

"Yeah it's a mess down there, blood on the walls, guts on the ground, heads on stakes… its' literally a bloody mess. I should probably clear it out before the cops start asking questions, because if they start asking they will probably have to join the collection of dead people down there."

"Aye, I know that feeling mate. I have a couple of dead people in my basement too. The cops asked about it once and that was the end of them. It was difficult trying to convince the police chief that they had never showed up." John answered.

"Oh yeah by the way, I would advise you to keep your eyes on the ground if you're walking around in the backyard. There is a possibility of falling over someone's foot or something. I had to bury a few people out there too. One of the good things about living in the middle of nowhere is that no one can hear your victims screaming." Ghost replied and both men looked over at Roach who now had very big eyes and looked more worried than ever. He started shifting uncomfortably around in his seat.

"Something wrong?" Ghost asked Roach with a smirk on his face.

"No not at all, but if you two come near me with anything you use in a kitchen, even if it's just a spoon, then I'm running for the hills…" Roach said worried. John and Ghost looked at eachother and couldn't stop laughing.

* * *

**So here it is as promised, a week in the company of MacTavish, Ghost and Roach. I'm going to use a system I used in a different story. The first chapter (this one) is just the first day and then the next chapter will be day 2 + 3 and the chapter after that will be 4 + 5 + 6 and then the next chapter will be day 7 where they'll go back and things like that. It worked pretty well before so I'll just do that again.**

**For some reason I wouldn't be surprised if Ghost was keeping bodies in his basement O_O**

**To Angel's Anthem: I don't know if you've seen the PM I sent to you, but if you haven't then sure I can take requests :) Just send me a PM and I'll take a look at it and see what I can do.**

**I hope you enjoyed and as always you're welcome to review.**


	25. Chapter 25: Drink Away the Pain

**Day 2:**

John woke up and yawned lazily as he slowly opened his eyes and took a look around the room. He had a feeling it was probably getting late, but to be honest he didn't really care. For once they were off duty and they could do whatever they wanted, so sleeping in was a must. He reached his arm out and searched the bedside table for his watch, 10:37 AM. He listened to see if he could hear if any of the others were awake, but no.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes, before he got out of bed and put on a shirt and walked out to the hallway. A door opened and Ghost came out from his room and gave him a smile. Both men now looked at the door that led to Roach's room. They couldn't hear anything from in there and they looked at each other with mischievous smiles.

"He said anything right? Even if it was just a spoon?" Ghost asked. John nodded and began chuckling.

"I'll be right back." Ghost said as he walked down the stairs. John walked over to the wall next to the door and leaned up against it. They had been so evil to Roach the night before, they had scared him all night until he freaked out and went to bed. They had continued the talk about bodies in the basement, bodies buried in the backyard and how Ghost had ended up having to kill them. They had also talked about the few bodies he had and why he had done it. The young man had seemed to be so scared, but they couldn't help themselves, it had been hilarious.

John looked over to the stairs and saw Ghost coming up. He had two spoons with him; this was going to be fantastic. He accepted the spoon and they opened the door to Roach's room. It looked like the younger man was still sleeping. The two of them sneaked in on each side of the man and Ghost raised the spoon a little before he hit the younger man in the head.

"HEY! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Roach yelled as he flew up. He looked at his two superiors and when he saw the spoon his eyes grew big. John couldn't help it when he started chuckling. Roach hurried out of the bed and then seemingly panicked because he looked like he didn't know where he was supposed to go.

"WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THOSE SPOONS?! SCOOP OUT MY EYES OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!" He yelled as he tried to defend himself with his bag. John and Ghost looked at each other and chuckled as they went closer to the now cornered Roach. Ghost started hitting his young friend with the spoon and John soon followed.

"What the fuck guys?! I hate you! Both of you!" He yelled as he squirmed around to try and avoid being hit. In the end he just snapped and yanked the spoons out of both of their hands and threw them away. "Mate, you do know we can just go get them right?"

"Please don't!" He said and looked at them with big eyes. John and Ghost looked at each other again and neither of them knew what to do. They really liked torturing Roach, but on the other hand how could they continued when he looked at them like that? "Okay, sorry Roach." John said and Roach looked suspiciously at them.

"I'm not going anywhere until you two back away." Roach said and glared at them. They moved back and Roach put down his bag.

"I'm hungry…" Roach said as he stayed a few feet away from his friends so he could watch them. John looked over at Ghost, because he saw him grinning. Ghost put his hands into his pockets as he turned his head to talk to Roach.

"Then let's get some breakfast. You two can just take whatever you want, but if you want cereal you'll need… A SPOON!" He yelled as he pulled a spoon out of his pocket and threw it at Roach. Roach gave a yelp and a cry of pain as the spoon hit his shoulder.

"Mate, you're so dead…" Roach said as he ran after Ghost who was now running as fast as he could down the stairs. John watched as the two men disappeared into a room somewhere downstairs. He couldn't see them anymore, but he could hear them yelling. John sighed and chuckled, "Those two would be perfect as brothers…"

_That evening…_

"Hey we should play a game!" Roach said all of the sudden. John and Ghost looked at him and raised an eyebrow. It never ended well when Roach wanted to play a game so he started getting a little worried. "What do you want to play?" Ghost asked after a while.

"What about Truth or Dare?" He said with a big smile. John and Ghost looked at each other none of them were very happy about the situation, but at the same time they wanted to make their friend happy. "Okay, but you have to ask first since it was your idea." Ghost said.

"Okay fair enough, um… Captain… Sir… John… Truth or Dare?" Roach asked with and awkward smile. "I'm going to be boring because I don't trust you for shite right now. So truth." John said and he could hear Ghost beginning to chuckle.

"What is the stupidest thing you have done of your own free will?" Roach said after thinking for a while. John started thinking, after a while he came to the conclusion that it was a hard question. The problem wasn't that he didn't have anything to choose from, he had done his fair share of idiotic things of his own free will. There was so much to choose from that he didn't know which one to pick.

"Bloody hell there are so many things that I don't know what to choose. It's hard to rank them since I have a lot of 10/10's. But there was once when I agreed to go out drinking with my previous captain, John Price. Let's just say that I had got so shitfaced that I became blackout drunk. I woke up taped to the roof of a van in the middle of nowhere, wearing a bra around my head, my shoes were missing and I had a note on me from some lass that said I was the most talented man she had ever seen with a shovel. It turned out that I was 4 hours away from the base and the bar we went to was only 20 minutes away from the base. I still have no idea whose van or bra it was and I never saw my shoes again. I never found out what I did with that shovel either and I don't want to know. After that I decided to never go out drinking with him again." John sighed and Roach and Ghost couldn't hold in their laughs anymore.

"That's really bad!" Ghost said while laughing and John couldn't really do anything else than agree with him. After that incident he hadn't got blackout drunk and he never wanted to again. "Simon, Truth or Dare?"

"I don't trust you for shite either, so truth."

"Ouch. Have you ever seen two animals mating and how was the experience?" John asked with a grin. He already knew that his friend would just come with some sort of witty comment, but that was also the reason for the question. Ghost had a way with making even the simplest answers hilarious.

"Yes I have and it was one of the most erotic and arousing moments of my life." Ghost said with a little smile.

"Gross dude! You can't get a lot of action if that turns you on." Roach said while laughing.

"Of course I do. There a plenty of dogs and goats out there right for the taking, but I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you about that, you must know plenty about it already." Ghost answered with a chuckle.

"EEEEEEEEEW NO!" Roach cried out as he began cringing. John couldn't help himself when he started laughing.

"So Gary, Truth or Dare?" Ghost asked.

"I'm not going to be pansies like you two, so dare." John looked over at ghost who started grinning; he was definitely up to something and that something was probably something Roach wouldn't be very happy about.

"So we're pansies eh? Then I dare you to walk around in the back yard for 30 minutes, you can't stand still." Roach started looking pale and his eyes went big.

"I hate you so much." He said after a while. He stood up and John and Ghost followed him out to the kitchen. Roach opened the door to the back yard and he completely froze. "But dude it's freaking dark!"

"I know, so you better watch your step so you don't fall over something…" Ghost answered with and evil grin. Roach came with a very unhappy sigh. He stepped outside and began walking around. "What did you do?" John asked curiously. "Nothing… But there might be some branches and things like that outside… and maybe someone placed them suspiciously." John came with a chuckle and so did Ghost.

"When did 'someone' do that?"

"It might have been last night, when everyone went to bed. Someone might also have had a feeling that Gary wanted to play this game…"

"Oh I see." John and Ghost looked outside and watched as Roach walked around. Their young friend wandered around carefully. However, walking carefully wouldn't exactly help him since it was unnaturally dark, which was caused by the tall trees surrounding the house.

"SHITE! They could see Roach falling flat on his stomach. For a second he didn't move, but then he shot up from the ground and came running towards them, only to trip over something again a couple of seconds later. "NO NO NO NO NO!" Roach screamed at the top of his lungs as he once again came running towards them. He basically jumped in through the door and he looked at them with a face that was mixed with anger and terror.

"I HATE YOU TWO! YOU PSYCHOS KEEPING PEOPLE BURIED IN YOUR BACKYARDS!" He yelled before he ran up the stairs. They could hear him slamming the door to his room. John looked over at Ghost and they burst out laughing. He knew it was a terrible thing to do, but it was just funny.

The two finally stopped laughing at their friend's misery and they both took a beer from the fridge. As they entered the living room and sat down they could hear the door open again upstairs. John looked over at the stairs and saw Roach coming down. Roach had a big angry frown that John had never seen before. It was hilarious so he struggled with not laughing. He looked over at Ghost and he could see that he felt the same way.

"You two are horrible people! I'm watching you from now on; I'll never let you out of my sight if I'm in the same room as you!" He said and showed them that he was watching. He then slowly backed up the stairs. As soon as Roach was gone, John and Ghost burst out laughing once again. _It's been a while since I've had this much fun… _John thought to himself.

* * *

**Day 3:**

They had been drinking for a while now and John was starting to be able to feel it. It had started out with a couple of beers and now they were sitting there, almost done with downing a bottle of whiskey. None of them were really saying much, it felt like they were all just suffering in the silence at this point. It was something they wouldn't be able to do in the same way if they were at the base.

"Ghost… can I ask you something?" Roach said as the first to break the silence. Ghost looked up from his glass and over to his friend.

"We're not on duty, you can just call me Simon and yes." Ghost answered.

"I know it's not something you like talking about, but can you tell us about your mother and brother…" Jon looked over at Roach and then to Ghost, a little worried about how he would take it. For a while Ghost didn't say anything, but then he sighed.

"I guess. Tommy my little brother, was always a little shite. When we were kids he was the one to bully me and not the other way around as it usually is. He was actually always more of a problem child than me. However, as we grew up he became less of an arsehole and we became fairly close. But I ended up joining the military and then one day when I came back he was a drug addict and I found out that Frank cheated on mum. Nice thing to come home to eh? For some reason it didn't surprise me since Frank had never been a nice person. But mum was definitely one of the kindest people I have ever known. She always took good care of my brother and I when Frank wasn't around. She always stood up for us and did everything she could to give us a normal family. She was also the one who wanted take the photo you guys saw when we came here. That was after I had managed to get my brother sobered up; actually the photo was taken not too long before I went on duty again. And that's when everything else happened…" Ghost said.

"They meant a lot to you didn't they?" Roach asked and it took a little while before Ghost nodded. They sat in the silence again, but this time John could feel that it was a depressed silence.

"'Tav, why didn't you want to go home?" Ghost asked after a while.

"I couldn't pull myself together to go home because of my family. My mother is disappointed that I chose to be in the military, she was completely heart-broken when I first joined. Then there's my father who simply doesn't give a shite about, partially me and what I do. And then I have my little brother who absolutely hates me for joining the military. I didn't feel like going back to that for a week."

"Shite… does your family live here or in Scotland?" Roach said.

"I have lived here for a long time, but my family moved here about a year ago, because my mother wanted to be closer to where I lived."

"How is your family?" Roach asked.

"My father is a typical Scottish stereotype. He's basically been drunk since he was a kid, which led to an interesting childhood if you get where I'm going, he's cheap as shite, he's a little too proud of being Scottish, he loves football, he's miserable all the time and he hates most of you Brits. So he wasn't happy when my mother insisted that they moved. His favorite food is haggis and he loves bagpipes. Personally I see bagpipes as some sort of torture. My mother on the other hand is a kind woman, but very stern. She can make my father do anything, no matter what it is. She's also very religious, so we had to go to church every Sunday and remember to pray and things like that, when we were kids. I don't believe, but I tell mum I do just to make her happy. Then there is my little brother Scot, ironic eh? We were very close growing up, but as soon as I joined the military he started hating me. He's one of those peace loving people so I guess it's understandable enough." John said.

He didn't like to think too much about his family since it just made him depressed. Even though he thought his father was a lot of bad things and he made some of their childhood hell, or at least until John started being able to fight back, then he also had his moments. He was a good man and John had a hard time keeping up with how many times he had apologized for the way he was during their childhood.

"What about you Roach? We can just as well take a round." John said to his young friend.

"I'm didn't want to go home because I'm tired of my parents giving me shite about being in the military. I'm turning 21 soon and I thought I was able to make my own decisions but apparently not, according to them. And then it's things like them trying to pressure me into things I don't want to do. I mean, I'm not that old, but they're already telling me to go out, find a girl, get married, get kids and get the hell away from the military. My sister on the other hand is fine; she's the only one I would really want to go home to."

"Wow, I never thought your family would be like that… Do you think there are any reasons as to why they act the way they do?" Ghost asked.

"I guess they just don't like the idea of maybe losing another child…" Roach answered. He downed the rest of the whiskey in his glass.

"Lose another child...?" John asked carefully.

"I used to have an older brother, Brandon. We were the best friends and I looked up to him and all those things little brothers are supposed to do, but he ended up getting involved with the wrong people and it tore our family apart. But long story short, he OD'ed on cocain. It's almost three years ago now. Still that doesn't mean they should act like they do, I really try my best to not get killed." Roach said as he reached out for the whiskey bottle. The thing with his older brother was no doubt something that had torn him to pieces. Some wounds never heal.

"You've never talked about him…" Ghost said, this time he looked a little worried.

"No, we don't really talk too much about him within our family and definitely not outside it. If we talk about him at home, it usually just ends up with the blaming game. Everyone just starts yelling at each other, because what if someone could've done that or someone could've done this and so on. After a while, you just stop talking about it completely if it's possible."

"Why do I have a feeling that you've been through a lot of shite Gary?" John asked after a while. Roach didn't answer he just chuckled lightly as he returned to his glass.

"Is it something you want to talk about?" Ghost asked after a little while's silence.

"I don't know what to tell you guys other than the most of my life has been a mess. High School was absolute hell, never had any friends and I was bullied all the time. You know it's bad when the "losers" won't even talk to you. So going through High School was very lonely. Then the things with my brother happened and then I joined the military. For the first time I actually started making friends. Then most of them died due to a patrolling mission gone wrong. That's also where I earned the name Roach. Then I was transferred to the S.A.S, I made new friends, then a lot of them decided to die again, for the second time due to a mission gone wrong. I've had to sit with several teammates in my arms while they died and then there's been a little bit of torture as well."

"I never knew that…" John said quietly.

"Simon knew some of it, but not all of it. But I'll have to say things have been lightening up ever since I joined the 141. It's the first time I have felt at home in a long time."

"Aye, the 141 is basically just one big family. Of course there's arseholes and all that, but we'll always take care of each other…" John said. Roach and Ghost nodded and there wasn't really said much else, but it seemed like everyone felt a little less burdened. Sometimes talking to some good friends and drinking away the pain, really helped.

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**Thanks to KoolKyo25 for the idea with Truth or Dare, I couldn't help but laugh as I read your review. It was a brilliant idea so I had to put it in here. All the credit goes to you for that :D**

**So as promised to Somebody Awesome and cod chick, I expanded on the characters. We got to know something about Ghost's mother and brother, we got to hear something about MacTavish's family and then Roach's tragic story about his older brother and the things he's been through with the military. I hope you guys liked it, but I definitely feel like this is something that would bring these three closer to each other.**

**I hope you enjoyed and as always you're welcome to review. **


	26. Chapter 26: The Three Musketeers

**Day 4**

It was early in the morning and John hadn't slept very much. He had spent a good portion of the night thinking about, what the three of them had been talking about the night before. He couldn't believe that the alcohol had loosened his tongue that much. He never intended for anyone to really know about his family. It was his business and no one else's. However, he did have to admit, that it felt nice to some extent that the others knew.

The most surprising event from that evening though, had been Roach. He had never seen the younger man like that before. Usually Roach was always this young, happy and carefree lad. Apparently he was just as good at keeping up a façade as himself and Ghost. He had never thought that he had a family that treated him the way they did. And he never thought that he had been through the things he had. Of course John knew that he must've been through some things, because of his nickname, but not to the extent it had been.

Then there had been Ghost. There had been something completely different about him when he talked about his mother and brother. When he talked about his father he usually hissed his name and you could feel how much he hated him. But John thought that he had heard some sort of… love, when he talked about his mother and little brother. He wasn't sure if it was love, but it had been a tone he had never heard his friend speak in before. Ghost had been so different… The tone he had used was so unfamiliar that it was almost alien.

John sighed and sat up in the bed; he rubbed his eyes and looked out the window. The house was completely silent and anyone else would have seen it as a sign that everyone was sleeping. But not him, he knew better. He knew his friends and he could tell that both Ghost and Roach were awake. They were all awake of the same reasons, they were all thinking. They were thinking about why they had decided to spill so much of their private lives to each other and they were thinking about what everyone had said.

John knew that when they all decided to get up, everyone would just act normally like nothing had ever happened. They weren't going to talk about it ever again. It was a once in a lifetime thing, but he could feel that it was something that would change the three of them. Since they now knew these things about each other, he knew that they would have a different relationship. It had, to say the least, brought them closer together, because they all had something they could relate to in each other's lives.

The night had also brought him a lot closer to Roach than he ever thought he would be. He knew that he would never get as close as him and Ghost were, but where he felt they were now, was definitely something special as well. To him, the younger man had mostly been an annoyance, but he had to admit that he had started to take a liking of him lately. His immatureness was quite refreshing once in a while and it could help on a rainy day.

John turned his attention to his door as he heard Roach's bedroom door open. He got out of the bed and put on a shirt and he went out to the hallway. Roach looked at him and smiled and not long after Ghost's door opened as well. The three of them stood there for a second and looked at each other and John waited for someone to break the silence.

"Do you guys like Smarties cereal?" Roach asked after a while. John looked confused at his friend, he had never heard about Smarties making breakfast products.

"I didn't know that Smarties made cereal…" John said after a while. Roach got a goofy smile on his face and chuckled.

"Well they don't. You basically just put Smarties in a bowl and pour milk on them." He said. John and Ghost looked at each other and chuckled. No wonder Roach had so much energy all the time, if that was what he ate for breakfast. They all knew that Roach didn't handle his sugar very well, but he had his way of smuggling candy and chocolate into the base. Once he had eaten something close to two pounds of candy and he was running up and down the hallways. John wouldn't have been surprised if he was able to run on the walls as well. It was hilarious when his sugar rush ended, since he basically just passed out on the floor.

"That explains why you bought as many Smarties as you did at that grocery store." Ghost replied.

"Trust me, it's really good." John chuckled lightly as the three of them went downstairs. As they entered the kitchen Roach opened a cabinet to retrieve his Smarties. He put them on the table, he took three bowls, spoons and milk and then he sat down. He didn't hesitate to take some of his Smarties cereal, while John and Ghost looked at each other. John sighed and reached out for the Smarties and put some into a bowl and poured milk on them. He looked at the so called "cereal" and forced himself to taste it.

John could see that Ghost waited for an answer, as to if it was safe or not, but right now he was busy trying to figure out why it was so good. He never thought that something like that would be good, but it really was.

"So?" Ghost asked after a while.

"It's brilliant!" John answered with his mouth full of Smarties. John watched as Ghost hesitantly took some himself, but after he had tasted it, he had to admit that it was pretty good as well.

"So um… On the way here I saw a poster advertising a new amusement park that has opened not too far away." Roach said. John and Ghost sighed; they both knew where he was going. If they said no, then they knew he would just look like a sad puppy and none of them had ever been able to resist that. So no matter what they would have to go to the amusement park.

"Do we have a choice?" Ghost asked.

"Absolutely not." Roach said smiling.

**Day 5**

John groaned as the three of them walked through what reminded him of the gates of hell. They were at the "amusement" park, which reminded him more of a carnival which had decided to stay instead of travelling around the country. They hadn't even done anything yet, but he could tell this was going to be far from amusing. He had never liked amusement parks very much. There was just too many people and screaming kids, not to mention the rollercoasters he was always forced to go on.

He hated rollercoasters, they reminded him of being in a crashing helicopter and frankly, he didn't enjoy that feeling. Roach on the other hand was smiling widely and Ghost… well he was just being Ghost, not really showing whether he liked it or not, he was just following along. The two men looked at each other and sighed as Roach ran over to the nearest popcorn stand.

"At least we're making him happy…" Ghost said as the two of them sat down on a bench waiting for Roach.

"Aye that has to mean something, eh?" John replied and they could see Roach walking towards them with his mouth full of popcorn. He went over to them and told them to scoot so he could sit between them. John started thinking that it felt more and more like Roach was their kid or something like that. They also earned themselves a few confused looks from people that walked by.

"What do you guys want to try first?" Roach asked.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?" John asked.

"Well there is this rollercoaster…"

"I think our good friend Simon here, volunteers for that." John said and looked at Ghost who was now murdering him with his eyes. Apparently he liked them as little as he did, but in the end he gave up and stood up from the bench. "Where is it, so we can get it over with?" He asked and Roach and John couldn't help but giggle a little bit. Ghost's facial expression was a very interesting mix of 'fuck this' and 'someone's going to die'.

Roach pointed over in the direction the rollercoaster was and John got up. They walked over to the monstrosity and Ghost and Roach got in line. John went over to a nearby lamppost and watched as his two friends were standing in line. Roach waved and John waved back, Ghost on the other hand, mouthed for him to go fuck himself. John couldn't help but chuckle and just waved to him as well. He knew he was going to get his arse kicked when later, but he didn't really care.

Roach and Ghost were finally at the front of the line and John could see as they disappeared into where the carts were. He leaned his head back against the lamppost, but his eyes slowly wandered to the left as he saw a mother playing with her little kid. The kid decided to throw its toy on the ground and John thanked everyone he could as she bended over to pick up the toy. He couldn't help but look as she was right next to him.

The woman straightened up again and gave her kid the toy back. As soon as she straightened up John spontaneously groaned and he noticed just as it was too late to walk away. The young woman looked at him and raised an eyebrow and he tried his best to pretend nothing had ever happened. "Excuse me?" She said and John gave her his best confused look.

"Aye, can I help you ma'am?" He said politely.

"Don't think I didn't see you…"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He said with a smirk. At the same time they could hear screaming from the rollercoaster. Both of them looked at it until the screaming stopped again. John looked back at the beautiful young woman who was now smiling at him. "Oh really? It's lucky for you that I think you're cute…" She looked like she didn't mean to say the last part out loud, so she started blushing.

"You think I'm cute, eh?"

"Well… yes." She said quietly. John smiled at her and he tried to start some sort of casual conversation. Both of them also made sure to keep an eye on the rollercoaster, since they were both waiting for someone. He ended up finding out that her name was Liz and that she was waiting for her older brother and his wife.

"So who are you here with?" She asked.

"Those two idiots over there." John said as he pointed at Roach and Ghost who were now walking towards them. Apparently the ride had just ended. Ghost actually seemed like he had had fun and Roach was smiling widely. Both of them gave John a suspicious look as they saw the young woman. "Your friends?"

"Friends and co-workers."

"Oh what do you guys do, since you are running around here?"

"We work in the military, we're off duty."

"Oh…" She said. Roach and Ghost approached and looked from the woman to John and then back again. Then both of them came with teasing smiles. She looked at the three of them and smiled as she looked to her left at a man and a woman that waved her over. "I should probably get back to my brother and his wife. It was nice meeting you though." John nodded and smiled at her as she walked away. Ghost walked over to him and nudged him with his elbow. "So uh… who was that?" Roach asked with a huge grin on his face.

"Some lass who caught me staring at her arse…"

"Smooth mate, really smooth." Ghost chuckled. John shook his head at his friends and they continued to walk through the amusement park, doing whatever Roach wanted to.

_Later that day…_

John took a look around and he noticed that it had got dark within a very short amount of time. They had spent the entire day walking around and trying several rides that Roach wanted to try and they decided it was time to go back soon. Roach was getting uncontrollable because of the big amount of candy he had been eating the entire day, Ghost was getting grumpy as shite and himself… well he was just really tired.

It hadn't been too long ago since they had told Roach he could find one last thing to do before they went back and that resulted in him running around in panic because he couldn't choose. He finally started calming down and went over to them again and said that he wanted to go on the ride he had first been on. John sighed and Ghost groaned, he was clearly not pleased with the situation.

John wasn't really paying attention to what Roach was talking about on the way to the ride, he just followed along. All of the sudden they were stopped by a man in a dog mascot suit. He walked over to Ghost and poked him on the arm. Roach went over to John, there was no way this wouldn't end up being hilarious. Ghost turned around and stared at the man like he wanted to murder him.

"What?" He almost hissed.

"I'm Bandit, this amusement parks mascot. I'm here to make everyone happy! You looked sad so I thought I would come over here to cheer you up mate! How about a hug?" John tried his best not to laugh and it looked like Roach was doing the same.

"You're not hugging me…"

"Aw come on, give Bandit a hug!"

"If you touch me, you die. I'm not even kidding." The man in the mascot suit sighed loudly and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Mate, I'm just doing my job here."

"Go find someone else then, it's not that hard."

"Are you kidding me?! Everywhere I go, I have to talk to bratty little kids who spill food on me, punch me in the stomach or kick me in the nuts! I came to you, because I hoped that as a grown man, you would understand my pain you twat! I'm fucking tired of this shite job, I'm tired of kids and right now I'm tired of you!" Roach started biting his lower lip, to make sure he didn't laugh. John was very impressed with himself that he had managed to stay quiet for so long. He couldn't believe that Ghost had just managed to piss of the guy whose job it was to be happy.

"It's not my fault that you chose to be a bloody carny! Go find yourself a different job then!" Ghost yelled at the man.

"THE FUCK DID YOU JUST CALL ME!"

"I CALLED YOU A FUCKING CARNY!"

"SCREW THIS! COME AT ME BRO!" The man in the dog suit yelled as he tore off his gloves and threw them on the ground. John knew that he should probably try and stop Ghost, but it was hilarious to see.

Ghost got up close with the man in the suit and pushed him so he stumbled back. The man in the dog suit tried punching Ghost, but it didn't go as planned as Ghost grabbed his arm and twisted it to his back. He pushed the man to the ground and he started flailing, yelling and screaming.

John started hearing yelling and he looked away from the two fighting on the ground and noticed that the amusement parks guards had started showing up. John quickly grabbed the back of Ghost shirt and took hold of Roach's wrist and started running away with them. He looked back and one of the guards who was talking to the man in the dog suit, before he looked at Ghost and started chasing them.

"Oh shite!" Roach yelled while he laughed and the three of them ran for the exit. It wasn't easy for MacTavish to run as he was still trying to get Ghost to stop running back to kick the man's arse. They finally arrived at the exit and they ran to the parking lot. The three hurried over to their car, where Roach threw himself onto the backseat while Ghost and John hurried onto the front seats and took off.

They could see the man in the dog suit and two guards yelling at them on the parking lot, while they sped away. They stayed quiet for a few minutes until Ghost started laughing uncontrollably. John and Roach followed soon after and John had to pull over to make sure he didn't crash into something. "I don't think I'm welcome in that amusement park anymore." Ghost said in between his laughing.

"You don't say, what the bloody hell were you thinking?" John said chuckling.

"I don't know. He just really started pissing me off." He chuckled.

"I have to say, this was the best ending to being in an amusement park ever!" Roach said laughing. John had to agree, he had never been happy about amusement parks, but it had definitely turned out to be a very interesting day.

**Day 6**

"I'm bored!" Roach said out loud and John and Ghost looked over at him. John was bored as well and he could tell that Ghost felt the same way. They hadn't really known what to make of the last day they had at Ghost's house. They had kept themselves busy with a little bit of everything so far and now they were running out of ideas. However, they all knew that they didn't need any more action related things, after they had been running away from the guards at the amusement park.

"Do you have any board games?" John asked Ghost who now stared at him like he was an idiot. He knew that board games were a bad idea, since they were boring as well, but at least it was better than just sitting there. But that wasn't the only problem. Whenever someone decided to play a board game at the base, it always ended up with someone cheating. Then people got mad, flipped over the board and walked away. So John knew it never ended well, but it really was better than nothing.

Ghost sighed and stood up and he disappeared down into his basement. John couldn't help but peek over at Roach whose eye started twitching a little bit. He couldn't believe they had actually made him believe the story with the bodies in the basement. He didn't know what they had managed to do to make him think it wasn't a joke. At least they got a good laugh out of it, but in return, Roach would never turn his back to them again. They had noticed how he had been keeping an eye on them ever since they had first joked around about it.

It didn't take long before Ghost came back from the basement of doom and held something behind his back. Roach looked a little nervous about what it was. "I found Scrabble." Ghost said as he threw the box on the table. John sighed, Scrabble was the worst game for them to play since people started making up their own words. He couldn't remember when was the last time that hadn't ended in disaster.

"Can't wait to see how this turns out…" Roach said quietly and Ghost chuckled lightly. They all knew how this was going to go, but they decided to play it anyway. They drew letters and it ended up with Ghost having to start. That was going to be great since he was the master at cheating in Scrabble. The worst part was that he made words that seemed real enough, but then if you looked them up, they were complete bullshit. So usually they had a dictionary for whenever Ghost made a word, but of course he hadn't taken a dictionary with him.

They all drew seven tiles and John could see that he had terrible letters. _This'll be fucking great… _he thought to himself as Ghost put down a word. Apparently he had decided to not cheat yet since John was sure he knew the word. "I'm surprised you didn't cheat from the first word." Roach said with a smile.

"Me cheat? Never." Ghost replied. The three of them concentrated on playing the game until Ghost of course started cheating.

"Dude are you even trying to cheat anymore?" John looked at the word Ghost had made 'meatness'. It really did seem like he wasn't even trying anymore. It was just one of those moments where Ghost had just decided to say fuck this and not give a crap anymore. "Prove it!" Ghost said with a smile.

"Do you have a dictionary?" Roach answered.

"Yes, but not somewhere you can find it."

"So you're basically admitting you're cheating?"

"Mate, I never cheat. Trust me meatness is a word. You can call Meat and trust me he'll confirm it. All I need is for one person to confirm it for me and then I can say it's not cheating."

"Oh of course you would ask Meat about meatness!"

_Oh dear…_ John thought. He was just waiting for the Scrabble board to get flipped over. It wouldn't take long, he could feel it.

"There are no rules about who you ask, so yes I choose Meat. Call him if you don't trust me."

"I'm not calling fucking Meat!"

"Then stop complaining."

"You know what?! Fuck this shit!" Roach almost yelled as he grabbed the edge of the Scrabble board and flipped it over. The little tiles flew all over the place and Ghost started laughing. Roach looked really mad and he hurried to get to his bedroom and slam the door. John sighed, that was basically how every Scrabble game ended and of course now was no different.

**Hi! Sorry for not updating for a while, but I'm dealing with some writer's block, so I hope this turned out okay.**

**I hope you enjoyed and as always you're welcome to review :)**


	27. Chapter 27: Nothing Ever Changes

**I'll start out with an apology. I am SO SO SO sorry I haven't updated for a very long time, but a lot of things have been happening lately. That includes going back to school, technical difficulties and some personal problems that I'm still dealing with. However, my writers block seems to be going away and I'm starting to get my inspiration back, so I'm kind of hoping that I'll soon be back to my usual update schedule. I hope this kind of explains it, so I'll shut up now.**

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**Day 7**

John was walking around in his room, packing his bag so he was ready for when they had to leave. The thought of leaving wasn't something he was that happy about, he had become happy about living in the house with his two friends. They had had a lot of fun, mostly with messing around with Roach which he hadn't been very happy about, but John had to admit it was hilarious. The past six days had been some of the best days in his life and the thought of leaving that behind made him sad.

He sat down on the bed in his room and looked at the now packed bag. He started thinking about what they had to return to. Boredom, a little bit of chaos and the fear of what Meat and Worm would do to them in their sleep. He sighed as he leaned back and stared into the ceiling. He turned his head as there was a knock on the door. "Come in." He said just loud enough for the person on the other side to hear it. The door opened and Ghost walked in and leaned up against a wall. It had got so normal to see him without a mask that it was strange to think about him starting to wear it again.

He was used to seeing Ghost without it, since he never wore it when it was just the two of them, but after spending time with him for a week where he hadn't worn it at all, it would take some getting used to. John thought about how uncomfortable it was to wear a mask all the time. The thing he thought must be the worst was training. The mask would make it harder to breathe properly and the way it must heat up under it… John couldn't understand how Ghost was able to do it, if it was him he wouldn't last a week.

"What's wrong mate?" MacTavish asked. Ghost lifted his head and gave a little smile; he slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor. "Nothing… it's just weird having to go back. I don't know if I should be excited or not." Ghost admitted as he rested his head in his on his knee and ran his hand through his hair. He really needed to cut it, it was getting way to long, but he got mad and defensive every time John asked about it. It was usually a very fun thing to annoy him with. It was like he had an emotional attachment to it.

"Aye, I kind of feel the same way. I know we'll have to go back, but at the same time I feel like finding Shepherd in person, tell him to go fuck himself, then leave and come back here." John said and sighed. "And by the way…"

"What?" Ghost said as he lifted his head to look at him. "How many times have I told you that you need to cut your hair? It's getting a little long mate." John said and fought back grin as he saw Ghost facial expression. He was getting mad again and it looked like he wanted to take off his hair and hug it. The hilarity of it was enough for John to ask him to cut it at least every two days.

"How about you shut up and let me do whatever the bloody hell I want with my hair?! And by the way it's almost time for me to get it cut again. I always let a specific number of months go before I do so." He replied.

"You cut it yourself?"

"Of course, I'm not letting anyone touch my hair. Fuck that shite."

"Mate… can't you hear that you're a little too attached to it."

"I have no idea what you're talking about and by the way, how would you feel if someone wanted to cut your mohawk?" Ghost asked with a smirk.

"I would cut of their hands and sew them to their cheeks."

"Aren't you a little too attached to your hair mate?" Ghost said mockingly. John looked at his best friend and tried to find some kind of witty comment to reply with, but he had nothing. He just ended up staring at Ghost opening his mouth whenever he thought he had something to say, but then he quickly closed it again.

"I don't even know…" He said after a while and Ghost chuckled and leaned his head back against his wall. They sat in the silence until Roach came in through the door and joined Ghost on the floor. "So this is where we have our pathetic 'I don't want to go back' talk?" He asked. John nodded and Ghost did the same. The three men sighed, but then John had an idea.

"Roach, don't you think Ghost needs a haircut?" Ghost looked like he wanted to kill him again and Roach just sat there completely unknowing of what they had just talked about. Roach looked at Ghost and touched his hair. Ghost seemed like he wanted to kill Roach, but he did his best to make sure he didn't.

"It is getting a little long…" Roach said, "But I also have to say, that when you have your hair back like you do now, you're damn good looking, no homo though. But if I were gay, you wouldn't stand a chance." He admitted and John couldn't help, but laugh loudly. Roach had a thing about not really thinking about what he said, he just blurted out whatever was on his mind. He had to admit that it could be adorable, but there was also times where he should have probably just have kept his thoughts in his head. John couldn't really figure out whether or not that was one of those moments.

Ghost looked weirdly at Roach and shook his head, while Roach just put up his hands innocently. "I'm just being honest here." Roach said and Ghost couldn't help but chuckle. "Well it's always good that you're comfortable with your sexuality." Ghost said while he shook his head again.

"Damn straight it is!" Roach said with a smile.

John was going to miss that. Of course they could have that kind of conversations back at the base as well, but it just wouldn't be the same, when they knew they weren't alone. They wouldn't be able to just do what they wanted and run around like idiots and simply just have fun. Things would definitely be changed between the three of them when they returned; there was no doubt about it.

"Man I don't want to leave!" Roach said as he leaned his head back against the wall. Ghost put his hand on Roach's shoulder, "Neither do we."

_Later that day…_

John was looking out the window at the familiar landscape that was flying by the car window. It wouldn't take long before they were back at the base and then they had to get ready for the others arrival. He sighed as he started thinking about he had to listen to people call him MacTavish and sir again. It had been nice to not have to be in the role of the superior and just be normal like everyone else. However, he didn't exactly have a choice, they had to go back and he had to deal with the fact that he was their superior.

One of the positive things about it was that he would be able to order Ghost to do his paperwork again. He knew it was evil since Ghost usually had enough shite to deal with on his own. He was always walking around making sure no one did anything too stupid and keeping everyone from killing each other. So usually he had more than enough to take care of and the last thing he needed was John's paperwork. However, he couldn't help it since Ghost could be hilarious when he started raging. It probably wasn't helping his mental state, but it was so entertaining. Though it was probably also a reason why it seemed like Ghost hated him once in a while.

John took a look at the backseat where Roach had fallen asleep. He was like a little kid; as soon as he was sitting in a car and it started moving he fell asleep. At least that meant they didn't have to listen to him rant about whatever came to his mind, or play games. John glanced over at Ghost who hadn't said much under the entire trip; he had just stayed quiet and focused on driving. John had an idea why; it was possible that because they had been away from the base and they all seemed to have fun, he had started to forget, but now that they had to go back, everything he was always trying to escape from came back.

Even though John knew all this he didn't want to comment on it, he didn't want to make it worse. He knew damn well that the last thing Ghost wanted was someone's pity. John looked ahead of him again and he could see the outline of the base. Even though he wasn't happy they were going back, it was nice and familiar. The thought of knowing where everything was and how everything worked was comfortable. The thought of its residents, wasn't that great though. Hopefully the rest of the team would be a little calmer for a little while, since they had been away and then they could go back to being as weird as they usually were.

John leaned his head up against the window and watched as they came closer and closer to the base. He felt like bailing out of the car and running away, but he couldn't leave Ghost to take care of everything on his own, he already did that enough, he didn't want it to get worse. He started thinking about how he really needed to start being more in charge. No matter how much he enjoyed watching Ghost rage over paperwork, he needed to start doing it himself. He was the captain of the team, not Ghost. He had to start doing what he got paid for and not let someone else do it. Everything was going to change as soon as everybody was back, or at least that was what he told himself until he started procrastinating again.

It didn't take them long to pull up at the garage and John turned his head to see if Roach was awake. He was answered by the light snoring coming from his young friend. John looked at Ghost as he heard him chuckle lightly and saw that he was sitting with bottle cap and he was taking aim. He couldn't help but chuckle a little bit as it hit Roach right between the eyes.

"HEY! What was that for?! Oh we're already here?" He said smiling. Apparently he had already forgotten that Ghost had just thrown something at him; that was another thing John thought was strange about Roach. He could be furious at you one second and then act like your best friend the next. That ability was always one of the reasons why people like Meat was always picking on him. Roach was simply too nice to tell people to go fuck themselves.

"Aye were here." As on cue they all sighed and got out of the car. John walked to the back of the car and opened the trunk so they could get their bags. The three of them got their things and walked up to the entrance of the base. John reached into his pocket and pulled out a key so he could open the door. He unwillingly put the key in the keyhole and opened the door. The three of them walked in and took a look around the base. John thought about how strange it was that it was so empty. He was always used to the rest of the team running around doing things he didn't want to know about.

They started walking towards the hallway, so they could get their things in place before the others would arrive. It wasn't because he was so concerned about not having time enough since the others would first arrive a couple of hours later. They had walked through half the hallway and Roach departed as they reached his shared room. Ghost and John kept walking until they reached their rooms.

John opened his door, but he looked over at Ghost as he was pulling out a key from his pocket. "Did ya really lock the door even though no one was here?" John asked with a smile. He knew Ghost always locked his door, but this was taking it a little far.

"Yeah, have a problem with that? I couldn't risk it." Ghost replied clearly not amused.

"Couldn't risk what? That the ghost's, fairies and leprechauns would go through your things?"

"Oh you're a funny guy aren't you?"

"I know right? I'm bloody hilarious."

"Well you're going to get your arse kicked in a second." Ghost said while cracking a little smile.

"Is that a way to talk to your superior?"

"We're not on duty yet and even if we were I would still kick your arse."

"Oooh I'm so scared. But I have a feeling you would just go straight through me, you are a ghost aren't ya?"

"You're lucky I'm not in a complete arse kicking mood right now, but I would watch my back if I were you. You never know when I'll be there; you did say I was a ghost yeah?" Ghost said as he unlocked his door and disappeared into his room. John chuckled lightly and walked into his room as well and closed the door behind him. He took a look around and remembered the state he had left it in. It was a complete mess, he really needed to clean it up, but he was slightly scared of what he would find if he started moving things around.

He looked at his bag and thought about whether or not he wanted to unpack. After staring at it for it a while he decided to do it some other time, he wasn't in the mood to unpack. He sat down on his bed and got used to being back. "Hey arsehole!" John had barely looked up as he felt something hit him hard on his forehead. He jumped a little bit and looked into his lap and found what had hit him, it was another bottle cap.

"Don't tell me you have an arsenal of bottle caps…" John said to Ghost who was grinning widely in the doorway.

"You have no idea mate, you have no bloody idea." Ghost said as he walked away chuckling and left John to think about what had just happened.

_A couple of hours later…_

John looked out the window as he heard the bus with the rest of the team pull up outside. It didn't take long before he could hear Meat's obnoxiously loud voice and Worm's loud laughing. He knew them well enough to know that Worm was probably laughing of something Meat had said and Royce was walking in the background shaking his head. It was a shame that Royce was friends with someone like Meat, he had the potential to be such a good guy, but Meat and partially broken him.

John could hear Ghost and Roach sigh and he couldn't help it when a sigh left him as well. They were just waiting for the door to open and for the rest of the team to ruin that wonderful feeling of peace that had been resting over the base the most of the day. The three of them sat there, listening and waiting for someone to grab the door handle. Of course it didn't take long and soon John could hear the team walk in. Everyone was talking loudly and he could see Roach sink into his seat, clearly not pleased with the situation.

"Hey guys, your king is back!" Meat said, causing Worm to chuckle. Roach rolled his eyes and sighed loudly.

"Shut up Meat!" Chemo yelled from somewhere in the middle of the little stream of people and several others agreed with him. John couldn't help but chuckle lightly as he heard Chemo yell at Meat. It was one of the things that would never change. Everyone was always yelling at Meat to shut up, but he had never really seemed to care.

John watched as everyone disappeared from the door and went down the hallway to their rooms. He had kept an eye on them to make sure everyone was there, but there was one that was missing. He hadn't seen Angel in the group of people, he wasn't exactly noticeable in the same way the others were. He wasn't loud or trying to make himself seen, he always stayed in the background which made him stand out compared to everyone else. John kept staring at the still open door waiting to see if Angel was going to show up.

"Where's Angel?" Roach asked with a confused look on his face and as on cue Angel walked in through the door. He looked around before stepping in further.

"Are they gone?" He asked.

"Aye, why?" John asked confused.

"I just couldn't take them anymore; the bus ride with them was terrible. Imagine having to listen to Meat talking the entire way and then listening to Worm's annoying laugh and everyone's never ending sighing. It was hell sir." Angel said as he took a deep breath. However, it didn't take long for him to lighten up as he saw Roach. Roach got up from his seat and walked towards his friend. The two of them walked away and left John and Ghost alone in the room.

"I'm already tired of them…" Ghost said annoyed. _Nice to see he's back to his good old self…_ John thought. It had been strange how happy Ghost had seemed in the days they had been away, but it had also been nice. He had barely seen him grumpy, except for the time where he had decided to beat up the guy at the carnival. But now it seemed like he was back to his good old 'I'll kill someone if they talk to me' attitude. John couldn't stop himself from smiling as he started thinking about something. Ghost turned his head and looked at him through his sunglasses.

"What?"

"I have an idea…"

_That evening…_

John was sitting in the recreation room with Ghost as everyone was forced to listen to Meat telling bullshit stories. "If he doesn't shut up soon…" The man named Pharaoh said quietly and everyone around him came with agreeing groans, which Meat didn't seem to notice. John looked over at Ghost and nodded at him. Ghost nodded back and he opened up a little back he had placed next to him. He took one of the many bottle caps in the bag and quickly threw one at Meat and it hit him on the ear.

"DUDE WHAT THE FUCK?!" Meat yelled and Ghost put his hands up innocently. Meat shook his head and continued his story. Once again John watched as Ghost reached into his bag and threw another bottle cap at Meat, this time it hit him on his eyebrow.

"Seriously! What the fuck are you doing?! It hurts like hell!" Meat yelled.

"Shut up or I'll send another one at you." Ghost said and it caused giggling from around the room.

"You'll run out of those things sooner or later."

"Trust me, I won't." Ghost showed Meat the full bag and looked him in the eye, "And I have more than these." Everyone looked at Ghost like he was insane and no one said anything until Meat broke the silence.

"Where the fuck did you get a-" He didn't get to finish his sentence as another bottle cap hit him between the eyes.

* * *

**This was kind of a poopy chapter, so I PROMISE I will update with another chapter within the next couple of days.**

**However, I hope you still enjoyed it just a little bit and as always you're welcome to review :)**


	28. Chapter 28: Calling Home

"RPG!" Ghost yelled from the other side of the chopper and within fractions of a second John felt its impact. Weirdly enough he didn't hear anything, but he could feel everything that happened, but it was like it was in slow-motion. There was the impact and he felt the chopper stop in the air. He saw his team trying to cover themselves as much as they could and prepare for the crash and he just sat there. The few seconds it took to hit the ground felt like minutes… one minute… two minutes… three minutes… crash.

…

"SIR! SIR! JOHN, WAKE UP YOU BLOODY WANKER!" He recognized the voice as Ghost's and he started opening his eyes. He was being dragged away from the burning wreck that had once been their transportation. Ghost stopped dragging him and he took a quick look around, apparently he was satisfied since he quickly returned his attention to him. John saw him kneel down next to him and he felt himself gathering his senses. He started being aware of his surroundings again and he started hearing properly.

"How are the others?" John asked as he tried sitting up, but he felt Ghost's hand on his chest, forcing him to lie down again.

"We need to make sure you're okay first. Anything broken?" Ghost asked surprisingly calm.

"No, I'm fine. Do you want me to do a drunk test as well or are you happy?" John asked slightly annoyed to which Ghost just chuckled.

"Alright I hear you, come on we need to check everyone else." Ghost stood up and put his hand down for John to grab. He took his hand and pulled himself up and he started getting an overview of the area. He saw the tree line, where they had to go to the east and he saw the burning wreck to the west. He looked towards the wreck and noticed Meat and Royce sitting on the ground, while Roach was on his knees coughing up his lungs and Pharaoh was standing and walking around and trying to calm Roach down. Meanwhile, he saw Nikolai walking around his burning chopper swearing in Russian.

John and Ghost hurried over to Meat and Royce and noticed the blood from Meat's leg. John and Ghost kneeled next to the sergeant. Ghost tried taking a look at Meat's leg but he cried out in pain. John took a closer look and the leg seemed like it was broken.

"Can you move mate?" John asked concerned.

"Sorry sir, I don't think I'll be very useful to you today." Meat said. While putting a hand on his leg. John pinched the bridge of his nose, now they were one man short. Great! The mission couldn't go any better. They start of by being shot down, they end up being one man short and now the entire base they had to infiltrate was probably on alert. Everything was just meant to go to hell.

"Nikolai!" John yelled and the Russian man looked at him. He hurried over and took a look at Meat's leg and cringed. "What is it?" He said with his thick accent.

"I need you to call for emergency extraction for in 30 minutes. I also need you to take care of Meat and make sure he doesn't die from blood loss." Nikolai nodded and took his radio to call for help. Ghost and John over at Roach and hurried his way. The younger man was no longer coughing up his lungs, but he didn't look too well. Robot was still pacing around, why John didn't know.

"Roach mate, how are you doing?" Ghost asked concerned.

"I'm okay. I don't know about my lungs though, they aren't too happy about me right now."

"Pharaoh, how are you holding up?" John asked.

"I'm fine sir, just trying to keep myself going."

"Smart move lad. Royce!" Royce looked at him and quickly patted Meat on the back before he came running. John sighed again and took a quick look around to make sure no one was walking around the tree lines. The last thing they needed was an ambush, but he also knew that they needed to get moving. There was no way; the enemy hadn't sent someone to investigate the crash site. They needed to take out anyone along the way. Meat wouldn't be able to survive a bullet wound as well. He was losing enough blood as it was.

"We need to get moving and get this over with before it takes a turn for the worse, even though I really doubt it can get much worse than this. We have to take out anyone they might have sent to investigate, but we can't let them alert anyone. We have to get this done fast, but silently and we're now one man short. Are you ready?" He asked and everyone nodded and they moved towards the tree line.

John could feel his head pounding, but he didn't have time to think about that. The last thing the team needed was for him to be distracted. He was their captain and if he couldn't even focus, then the rest wouldn't be able to either. He put his attention back to the mission at hand, get in, grab the intel, get out. He knew it was never that easy, something always fucked up, but they couldn't be running so low on luck. With all that had happened in that short amount of time, he thought that they must've got just a little bit back.

John made the team stop moving as he saw a little investigation team. "Ghost we need to take them out. On three. One, two, three." They fired their weapons and quickly took out the four men the unit consisted of. They didn't have time to hide the bodies from any other enemies, so they continued moving. Along the way there were a few more enemies and a couple of attack dogs. John hated dogs and the only one who knew, was Ghost.

It didn't take long for the five of them to get close to the base. It was small but they didn't know how well trained the men were, so they had to be careful. John signed to the team that they had to steer clear of larger buildings. The small team started moving and they slowly got closer to the main building they had to get into. "Stop!" Ghost hissed all of the sudden and everyone got down behind a building.

"What's going on?" John whispered. He had to whisper and even that was risking it. He knew the buildings were filled with tangoes, so they had to keep any kind of talking to a minimum. John looked over at Roach who had punched him lightly on the arm. Roach signed for him to keep quiet and then signed that he and Ghost was listening.

After they hadn't moved for about a minute, John started getting nervous. They had to move soon, or someone was bound to see them. He noticed Ghost and Roach nodding at each other and he questionably put out his hands.

"They were talking…" Ghost whispered.

"Oh really?! I didn't notice that." John said annoyed.

"You're funny. But the point is that Roach and I understood what they said and you didn't." Ghost was right, he and Roach understood Russian, the rest of the team or at least the ones he had with him didn't. Ghost continued, "They talked about the investigation team, if they aren't showing up in about 10 minutes then they'll think something is wrong and they'll send someone out to look for them. Which means…"

"… we have less than 10 minutes to get the Intel. Bloody great." John groaned.

"Okay, listen up. We're going to get this done fast. We don't have time to stall anymore. We have to get that intel and right now it doesn't matter if we get caught. We all know that is going to happen anyway, we haven't been on a mission where we haven't been noticed. So let's go, but remember to keep an eye out. The later we're seen the better." John said and the team started moving again.

They had the target building in sight and from their point of view, no one was in it and no one was guarding it. They could seemingly just slip in. John found it suspicious, but there was no way out. "Alright we're going in." The team nodded and they looked like they had just as bad a feeling about the situation as him.

They went up to the door and Ghost quickly lock picked the door. They all stepped inside, but remembered to stay low. The men started looking around for what their Intel had said, a simple folder with large Russian letters on the outside. John moved around but he couldn't see anything and everyone else searched as well drawers, boxes, everything.

"Sir… we need to get out right now…" Royce said nervously. The team turned around to see Royce standing with a folder in his hand and from what John could see it looked like what they were looking for.

"You found it?" Pharaoh asked.

"Yes I did. There's just one problem, there's a blank page on the inside with a photo attached to it. The photo is of us on our way through the forest." Royce quickly put the folder down on a table and John quickly took a look at it. There was a photo… they had been followed all along.

"Out! Now!" John said and the men quickly hurried out through the door. They had barely made it out as they all heard a light bang and a groan of pain. John looked to the side and barely managed to catch Pharaoh as he collapsed. "AMBUSH! SNIPERS ON THE ROOFTOPS!" Ghost yelled and Roach and Royce quickly got to cover. Ghost covered John while he dragged Pharaoh to cover.

John took a quick look at Pharaoh's injuries and immediately noticed the red stain spreading on his chest. "Hang in there mate. We're going to get you out of here." John said while putting a little pressure on the wound. The only response he got was another groan of pain. John pulled Pharaoh up and supported him and he heard the others firing at someone he couldn't see.

"Cover us! We need to get him help!" John said as he started moving. Royce quickly moved up in front of him and Roach and Ghost stayed in the back. They started moving as fast as they could and headed back through the forest. John kept pulling Pharaoh back up as he kept slipping. He started becoming heavier and heavier for each second and John knew they had to get him back as fast as they could if they didn't want to lose him.

"Nikolai! How's it looking with the extraction?" John yelled over the comms.

"They are here in 2 minutes."

"Tell them we have another injured and that we're under heavy fire!"

"Alright, I will."

John could feel Pharaoh slipping again, so he tried pulling him up once more. However, the man couldn't even stand anymore and he completely collapsed. John dragged him to cover behind a fallen over tree, while the rest had them covered them as well as possible. "Mate, we're almost there, you can do this." John said as he tried getting a grip on Pharaoh again, but the man just pushed him away with the tiny amount of energy he had left.

"Leave me… I'm just slowing you down. It's not worth it."

"What are you talking about, they are waiting with a doctor for you, come on."

"Captain… you know as well as me that I'm done for, I'm not getting out of here."

"Pharaoh, we don't have time for this, get up!"

"Sir! Just leave me! Go! All of you!" Pharaoh said and John could feel that he really meant it. Roach quickly ducked behind the tree trunk so he was sitting next to Pharaoh. "Dude don't say that, come on we'll get you out of here."

"Roach man, you've been awesome to work with. You're a pain in the ass once in a while, but I respect you."

"Mate, you can say all that later, now come on!" Roach almost yelled.

"It's been a pleasure serving with all of you, but you have to go now. Leave me here; I can buy you some time. All I want is for you to tell my little sister that I love her and in my bedside table there is this necklace, I need you to send it to her. Now go! I won't argue with you anymore!" Pharaoh said as he groaned because he moved around. The red stain was covering the most of his chest and John knew, that there was nothing he could do to save him. Pharaoh had always been a stubborn bastard and there was nothing he could do to make him change his mind.

John pulled Roach away and signed for Royce and Ghost to follow him. John managed to duck and he could hear a bullet hit a tree right behind him. "Mate… you're one brave man. We won't forget you. It's been an honor." John said. "Thanks sir, NOW LEAVE!"

With much effort John managed to pull Roach away from Pharaoh and made him run towards the clearing where they were supposed to be picked up. They were almost there, but John looked back and saw Pharaoh fiddling with several grenades. He felt like shit for leaving the man behind and there was no way he was doing it willingly. The four men reached the clearing and saw a chopper waiting to take off. Nikolai was waving at them from the chopper and they hurried to get in.

"Where is the injured?" A man in the chopper yelled.

"… He wanted to stay behi-" John stopped talking as they all heard several loud bangs and a lot of screams. Everyone in the chopper went quiet and John didn't need to finish his sentence to make the crew understand what had just happened. They just hurried to take off and head home.

_Several hours later…_

It hadn't been long since they had arrived back and John had explained why Pharaoh wasn't coming back with them. No one had said anything, but he could see it was a big loss. Pharaoh was just the kind of guy everyone liked and it felt terrible to lose him. John had also called Shepherd and had told him about the fake intel and Pharaoh's death. He had been supplied with Pharaoh's sister's phone number and he had gone to pick up the necklace he had been told to send. He had put it in an envelope and he was going to send it the first thing in the morning.

No one had really talked ever since they had gone back and he was heading to his office so he could call the sister. He was almost at the door as he saw Roach coming out from his room. "Roach mate, how are you holding up?"

"Don't talk to me."

"What?"

"We could have saved him…"

"He knew as well as I did, as well as everyone that it would be impossible to save him. He was almost dead when we left…"

"We could at least have brought him back! You didn't even try to do anything!"

"I told him several times that we would bring him back, but he didn't want to listen. You know how stubborn he was."

"I don't care! We at least owe his family to give them something to bury!"

"Roach… I tried I really did, but you heard him."

"You know what? I'm not going to talk to you about this!" Roach yelled as he walked back to his room and slammed the door. John sighed and leaned his head back. "He'll understand soon enough mate. You did what you could." Ghost said from down the hallway. John looked over at his friend who had just shown up and sighed again.

"Well it sure as hell doesn't feel like it."

"We knew this would happen one day or another. Death is a risk in what we do."

"I know I just hoped I never had to make this type of call…" John said as he opened the door to his office and left Ghost in the hallway. He sat down behind his desk and fiddled with the little piece of paper he had written Pharaoh's sister's number on. He looked at the phone one the left side of the table and sighed loudly. He had never thought he would be in the situation of having to call home to someone about this sort of matter.

He picked up the phone and dialed in the number and waited. After a little while it was answered. "Hello? This is Sarah."

"Sarah Hall? The little sister of Ben Hall?"

"Yes that's me. Who are you and what is this about?"

"My name is John MacTavish; I'm your brother's captain…" The woman went completely silent and John had a feeling she already knew what was going on, "… I sincerely regret to inform you that your brother has passed away. He died in combat…" John kept talking through the formalities while he could hear Pharaoh's sister starting to break down and cry.

* * *

**As promised another chapter within a short amount of time. I never meant for the chapter to be like this and I can honestly say that I feel like shit for doing this, even though Pharaoh is not an important character :/**

**I hope you enjoyed and as always you're welcome to review :)**


	29. Chapter 29: Unknown Friendship

Everyone was still mourning over the loss of Pharaoh. No one said it out loud, but John could feel it. It had been a couple of days and ever since there the base had basically been quiet. No one acted like they usually did and he didn't even have to listen to complaints about Ghost's training. When it got that far, he knew it was bad. However, he could deal with the others being down, since he knew they would just have to get over the shock and then everything would be back to normal… except for one person.

Roach hadn't talked to him ever since they got back. He had got a few glares out of him, but that had been it. John never knew that Roach and Pharaoh were that close. He had seen them talk a few times, but that had been it. In general he didn't see Roach talking to a lot of people. The few he had seen him around was, Angel, who John thought was his best friend, then there was Toad and then occasionally Pharaoh. Of course there was also himself and Ghost.

Roach being friends with Pharaoh almost seemed absurd. They were complete opposites. Pharaoh was always serious and he tended to be very quiet. He did act crazy like the rest of the team, but mostly when he had been drinking. Then there was Roach, he was childish and he couldn't sit still for more than five minutes. It usually ended up with John or Ghost having to find something to keep him busy with. They had used a broad selection of things so far. 1000 piece puzzles, several coloring books, action figures (which he still played with once in a while) and then when they were running out of ideas, a sticky hand. The sticky hand had been the most successful. It had kept him entertained for hours and they still used it, when he started getting to energetic.

John chuckled at the thought, but he still couldn't help but think about how Roach and Pharaoh became friends. Mostly because Pharaoh didn't seem like the type to be friends with someone as energetic as Roach, but then again, all of Roach's friends were his opposites. He had somehow managed to grow on them and it could only have happened the same way with Pharaoh. They had to have been way closer than he had thought, else it wouldn't make sense with the way Roach reacted.

John sighed and pushed his laptop out of the way so he could rest his head on his desk. He really wanted to help the younger man, but it was difficult when he wouldn't let him. John lifted his head slightly as he heard the door to his office open; since it was just Ghost he placed his head on the table again. He could hear the other man sit down on the other side of the desk and he could feel he was watching him.

John sighed loudly and he could hear Ghost chuckling.

"Bloody hell mate, you're like a girl right now. You'll just keep sighing loudly until I ask you what's wrong, won't you? Please don't make me guess what it is." John lifted his head and raised an eyebrow as he leaned back, "piss off." He said, but he couldn't help but smile a little bit.

"It's Roach."

"What happened? Is he still mad? Oh wait a second I know what is… He said he didn't love you back when you declared your undying love for him, didn't he?" Ghost chuckled.

"Very funny, don't make me come over there and kick your arse, 'cause I will. And you already know that it's you I'm going to marry." John said with a giggle.

"Good, I was getting afraid you were cheating on me."

"I would never do that, you're my one true love and you know that. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"You're so sweet aren't you? Now what was it about Roach?" John shook his head at Ghost and chuckled lightly. John thought about a time where the others had heard them joking around like that. They had earned themselves some strange looks, some headshaking and lifted eyebrows. On the other hand a few had also just said that it didn't surprise them. So everything was just great, the entire team now thought they were a gay couple and even though they had tried to tell them it wasn't true, no one believed them. They were stuck with it, no matter if they liked it or not.

"Did you know Roach and Pharaoh were close friends?" John asked.

"Well I knew they were friends, but I never thought they were close. Roach has never really talked about the two of them being friends, but I guess it only makes sense after the way he reacted. I'm guessing he still won't talk to you."

"Aye, he hasn't said a word to me. I was starting to think that I might need to start a little investigation."

"Seems like a good idea, just make sure you don't snoop too much, considering how pissed off he is at you now, then he probably won't take it lightly."

"I know, I'll put a plan together and see what I can find out." Ghost nodded and he got up and walked over to the door. He was standing in the hallway and was about to close the door, when John thought he looked like he remembered something.

"And by the way, when we get married I expect to get a big diamond ring. And you better engrave it with something adorable as well."

"Whatever you want my love, only the best for you." John tilted his head to the side as he saw someone behind Ghost. Ghost turned around only to find Archer behind him. The man shook his head, "I don't even want to know." He said before he continued down the hallway. Ghost chuckled as he closed the door and John started thinking about how he was going to figure out more about Roach and Pharaoh.

_Later that day…_

John was wandering around the base looking for someone he could question. He was going to get to the bottom of this no matter what. He guessed it was fair enough that Roach was mad at him, but he wanted to know why. He entered the recreation room and took a look around. He could see Toad sitting in the couch with some of the others and luckily Roach wasn't there. John walked over to the couch and tapped Toad on the shoulder. "Sir, what's up?" The young man said.

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Ah… sure." Toad got up from his seat and followed John to his office. John gestured for the man to sit down as he moved over and leaned up against a wall. "What have I done?" Toad asked as he came with a nervous laugh. "Nothing mate, I just need to ask you some questions. Do you know anything about Roach and Pharaoh?"

"Oh… I know they were friends if that's what you're asking."

"Do you know if they were close and how they became friends?"

"I don't know if they were close, I mean they spent some time together once in a while, but that's basically it. And how they became friends… oh man. I have no idea, it just seemed like it was from one day to another. They just started hanging out all of the sudden." John nodded and sighed. _Well that didn't help much_; he thought to himself as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You should try asking Angel, I mean he and Roach are like best friends so if anyone knows something it should be him. I saw him a second ago; do you want me to send him here?"

"Aye, that would be nice."

"I will then sir, happy stalking…" Toad said as he tried he gave a little smile. John smiled back and shook his head. He went over and looked out the window as he waited for Angel. He should have thought about asking him first; Toad was right if anyone knew something, it had to be him. As far as he was concerned, they talked about pretty much everything. He turned around as the door opened and he gestured for Angel to sit down.

"So Toad told me you want to know something about Roach and Pharaoh."

"Aye, what do you know?"

"I guess you expect me to be the jealous best friend, who didn't like that Roach started hanging out with other people, but I'm sorry to disappoint you sir. I don't really know anything, except that they started talking kind of out of the blue. One day they hanging out and it ended up with me getting closer to Pharaoh as well. But I have no idea why they became friends in the first place. They never told me anything and I never asked since it was none of my business. I can say that Roach misses him though, everyone does."

"I know mate, but thank you for your help." Angel nodded as he stood up and left the room. As soon as Angel had left the room, John groaned and banged his head against the wall. This hadn't turned out the way he expected. He had hoped someone knew something, but it seemed like everyone had just erased every memory of the two from their brain. He started pacing around in the room, trying to think of what he was going to do next. No matter how weird it was he needed to know why the two of them were such good friends. Then he would be able to understand Roach's reaction and maybe that way, he could make Roach talk to him again.

There was a light knock on the door and Ghost stepped in. John could hear he was chuckling but he didn't really care. He needed to figure something out. "Don't you think you're taking this a little far mate?" Ghost asked after a while.

"NO!"

"You do know that you kind of resemble a crazy stalker right? We don't want Roach to get a restraining order against you."

"I'm not stalking, I'm just taking interest in my team."

"You're taking it to the next level then… Who are you going to question next?"

"I don't know, I already talked to Toad and Angel and they were the only people I knew were friends with Roach."

"Then there's only one other person you can talk to…" John stopped pacing and he slowly turned his head to look at his friend. He knew what he was going to say, but it was insane. You never talked to that person for information; not unless it was absolutely necessary. Getting info from the person usually meant you had to make a deal and the consequences of the deal were so bad, that death seemed like a better option. He wasn't going to talk to him, no way.

"I'm not doing it."

"You're out of options mate, you have to, I'll set up a meeting for you if you'd like. What do you say about tonight at 1 AM, it's probably going to be at the big tree outside, if it's not then I'll let you know."

"Do you really think it's a good idea?"

"No, but what other choice do you have?" John sighed as Ghost left the room again. He needed to man up; this was the only way he could get what he wanted. The only way…

_That evening…_

It was precisely 1 AM and John was wandering around the big tree outside the base. It was dead quiet; the only thing you could hear was the wind and leafs. Everyone else was sleeping, so it would only be John and… him. John had wandered around the tree for about ten minutes to make sure he wasn't going to be late, that was the last thing he wanted. He took a look around in the hopes of seeing someone, but it was difficult because of the amount of fog.

His heart skipped a beat as he heard footsteps behind him and he quickly turned around only to be greeted by a smirk.

"Hello captain, I never thought I was going to make a deal with you."

"Let's just get this over with Meat, you know what I want and since you agreed to show up, I assume you know something. Now what do you want?"

"One week of immunity. No matter who comes running to you, you can't help them and don't even think about getting Ghost to take care of it. I already talked to him and he is staying away as well, if you decide to go through with this. But the good thing is that you two won't become victims of what I have planned." John pinched the bridge of his nose. Giving Meat a week's worth of immunity was probably the worst thing he could do. If he said yes, he was going to regret it and if he said no, he would never become wiser on Roach's and Pharaoh's friendship.

"The clock's ticking sir, will you take the deal or not?"

"Fuck… I'll do it."

"Wise choice sir. Now to what you want. A couple of months ago I was walking around at night because I couldn't sleep so I decided to head for the kitchens to get something to drink. As soon as I got there I noticed Roach talking to Pharaoh. It seemed very normal apart from the fact that two of them never really talked to each other, but I didn't think much of it, but I decided to stay out of sight and watch anyway. I have no idea what they talked about, but all of the sudden Pharaoh started crying. Roach being Roach, came to the rescue and tried comforting him. That was where I left to make sure I didn't get caught, but it was the day after, that Roach and Pharaoh started seeming like they were really good friends." John nodded at the information he had just been given. It still didn't tell him why, but at least his how, was answered.

John thanked Meat as he turned around to walk away, "Now don't forget our deal sir." John groaned, how could he forget.

_The next day…_

John was walking down the hallway, when he felt someone push him. He stumbled into a room which he could tell was the maintenance room, after he took a closer look. He heard the door close behind him and he turned around to stare into Roach's angry face. Roach placed his arms across his chest and leaned up against the door. "Why have you been asking questions about me and Pharaoh?" He asked after an awkward staring competition.

"What? I have no idea what you're talking about." John lied, he already knew Roach wouldn't believe him, but it was better than telling the truth. At least for as long as possible.

"I heard Toad telling Angel that you needed to talk to him about it. And I also heard about your deal with Meat."

"Shite…"

"What do you want? Why can't you just leave it alone?"

"Because I'm worried. I never knew that you and Pharaoh were that close, so I've been curious to find out what was going on."

"Why didn't you just ask me?"

"Because you didn't want to talk to me."

"Fair enough… If I tell you, will you stop asking questions?"

"Yes."

"I was close to Pharaoh, probably a lot closer than anyone else on this team. It was a night where neither of us could sleep so we ended up talking. After a while, don't ask me why, he started telling me some pretty personal stuff. Let's just say he wasn't in a great mental state. However, it ended up with him opening up completely and he told me everything. As far as I could tell he only opened up, because it was either that or suicide. I did my best to help him and we became friends after that. He said I kind of worked as therapy for him and I'm happy that I actually managed to help him. We started hanging out and I found out that he was actually a really fun guy to be around. I would say that I almost managed to get the same friendship with him as I have with Angel…" John could hear Roach sniffle; he never knew any of that.

"Mate… I'm sorry that I couldn't save him. I really tried but he insisted on staying. Believe me, I feel terrible but I don't think there was anything I could have done. He was determined and-"

"I know and I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you… I'm sorry for that." Roach interrupted.

"It's okay mate… Can we be friends again?"

"Yeah, of course… I need to ask you something though."

"Anything."

"What will you do with your deal with Meat?"

"Oh I figured something out, I made a deal with him, but he forgot that I'm the captain and I can do whatever the bloody hell I want."

* * *

**I hope this satisfies your need of knowing about Roach and Pharaoh's friendship. So we got to know a lot of new things this time, MacTavish can be a creepy stalker if he wants to be, Meat basically has the same function as a crossroad demon and everyone thinks MacTavish and Ghost has something going on :P**

**By the way, I think I'll start the story line next chapter, I mean we've almost reached 30 chapters so it's about time :) **

**I hope you enjoyed and as always you're welcome to review :)**


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